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502nd Air Base Wing: Supporting the largest installation in the first command

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  • By 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas --  As Air Education and Training Command recruits, trains and educates thousands of civilians and Airmen to become experts in a broad range of important skills, there is an indispensable member of the AETC team behind the scenes at Joint Base San Antonio supporting the command's success: the 502nd Air Base Wing.

As the host wing at Joint Base San Antonio the 502nd ABW provides support services to more DoD students and has more active runways than any other installation, including eight operating locations and 266 mission partners.

The 502nd ABW has been partnered with AETC since the wing was founded in 1947 at Maxwell Field, Ala., as the 502nd Air University Wing. There it performed base support and logistical duties for AETC’s Air University under various unit designations until it was inactivated in 1994.

In 2005, the Department of Defense received Congressional authorization for a Base Realignment and Closure Round. Under the BRAC Joint Basing Recommendation for San Antonio, installation support functions at the Army's Fort Sam Houston were combined with those at Randolph and Lackland Air Force Bases under a single organization to form what is the largest joint base in the DoD.

On Aug. 1, 2009, the Air Force activated the 502nd ABW to perform the joint base support mission.

Because of its central location in San Antonio and Bexar County, Texas, the Air Force activated the wing at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. The wing gradually built its staff over the next few months, while it coordinated with the support functions at Fort Sam Houston, Lackland AFB, and Randolph AFB.

On Jan. 31, 2010, the 502d ABW became the host unit at JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Randolph from the 37th Training Wing and 12th Flying Training Wing, respectively, and on April 30, 2010 the wing became the host unit at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston and JBSA-Camp Bullis.

As the oldest JBSA installation, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston can trace its origins back to 1876 when the Army began construction of a quartermaster supply depot that would eventually be known as the Quadrangle. Today at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston’s Medical Education Training Campus, more than 24,000 enlisted men and women from all military branches are trained. Some of whom will eventually work at the nearby San Antonio Military Medical Center, the DoD's largest in-patient hospital and only state-side, level one trauma center.

JBSA-Lackland dates back to July 4, 1942, when the War Department separated part of then Kelly Field and made it an independent installation, naming it the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center. The first class of 1,906 cadets began training in November 1941 even though barracks were not ready until mid-December. As the demand for aircrew became more urgent after the attack at Pearl Harbor, the need for the training area known at that time as “the Hill” to be separated from Kelly Field and operated as an independent military installation became evident. Now 37th Training Wing at JBSA-Lackland graduates nearly 80,000 Airmen from Air Force basic, technical, security and international training each year.

On Oct. 1, 1931, the Air Corps Training Center moved its headquarters to then Randolph Field. A month later, on Nov. 2, the first pilot training class of 210 flying cadets and 99 student officers began their primary pilot training. Cadet training at Randolph continued until March 1943, when the Army replaced it with the Central Instructor School and the mission turned to training instructors. Since that time, pilot instructor training has remained a central part of Randolph’s mission. More than 850 instructor pilots and 500 remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators are trained by the 12th Flying Training Wing at JBSA-Randolph every year.

As AETC's strategic vision, instructor development, and student curricula evolve to meet emerging national priorities, the 502nd ABW’s infrastructure and support services are prepared to quickly and efficiently reorient or reposition to meet the command's changing needs.

*Editor’s note-this article is part of a series focused on the roles AETC’s wings have played in the command’s first 75 years.