page_title: Kirtland Air Force Base
section_title: Bombardier training
hierarchical_section_title: Kirtland Air Force Base / History / World War II / Bombardier training
caption_attribution_description: English: San Angelo Airmy Airfield Ground Classroom 1943
context_page_description: Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland. The military and the international airport share the same runways, making ABQ a joint civil-military airport.
  Kirtland AFB is the largest installation in Air Force Global Strike Command and sixth largest in the Air Force. The base occupies 51,558 acres and employs over 23,000 people, including more than 4,200 active duty and 1,000 Guard, plus 3,200 part-time Reserve personnel. In 2000, Kirtland AFB's economic impact on the City of Albuquerque was over $2.7 billion.
  Kirtland is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center. The NWC's responsibilities include acquisition, modernization and sustainment of nuclear system programs for both the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. The NWC is composed of two wings–the 377th Air Base Wing and 498th Nuclear Systems Wing–along with ten groups and 7 squadrons.
context_section_description: With the departure of the 19th Bombardment Group from Albuquerque Army Air Base in the fall of 1941, Major General Arnold moved the military's bombardier school from Louisiana to Albuquerque for two reasons—good weather and the availability of vacant land on which to build bombing ranges. It was proclaimed the "World’s First Bombardier School", and on 24 December 1941 it was officially designated an Army Air Forces Advanced Flying School under the USAAF Western Flying Training Command.
  The 56th and 88th School Squadrons, the 9th Materiel Squadron, and the 92nd Quartermaster Battalion arrived the week after the Pearl Harbor Attack, followed shortly by the 383rd and 384th School Squadrons and the 459th Ordnance Company. The director of the school, Colonel John P. Ryan, was praised for rapidly organizing the nation's first permanent bombardier training school.  Instructors, maintenance personnel, and cadets arrived so quickly that base operations such as engineering and supply had to be operated out of pyramidal tents lacking heat and protection from blowing sand. Other problems included lack of aircraft parking space and adequate lighting near the aircraft parking ramp. New construction projects began early in 1942, adding offices and housing quarters, ordnance storage, a photography lab, flightline buildings, and maintenance hangars. The base undertook paving and lighting of aircraft parking spaces, and scheduled the building of additional runways and taxiways.
  Students began training on twin-engine Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan bomber trainers. By January 1942, there were 50 aircraft on base, in addition to 28 B-18A Bolo bombers used for training. Eventually, about 150 AT-11s served the school.  The USAAF established a new minimum proficiency standard for bombardier trainees in 1943. Trainees were required to hit their targets during at least 22 percent of their drops. Practice combat flying missions required continuous evasive action within a 10-mile radius of the intended target. The final approach was required to be straight, level and taking no longer than 60 seconds.
  The school taught bombardiers the technique of bomb sighting. Bombardiers were required to crawl down shafts that gave way to the "bubble," from which they had bird's-eye views of the ground below. The bombardier's job was to feed the bombsight the needed information, air speed, wind speed, wind direction, altitude, and the angle of drift. As the aircraft approached the target, the pilot turned the aircraft over to the bombardier and the Norden bombsight, which was also an automatic pilot that flew the aircraft as bombs were released over the target. Classroom instruction at the Albuquerque base was held at night and training missions were flown during the day to bombsights around Albuquerque. Servicemen and WPA workers were tasked with laying out bombing ranges for training. These were located west and southwest of Albuquerque, including a major range located between the neighboring village, Los Lunas and the Rio Puerco. Contracts for day and night bombing targets on the ranges were let during January 1942, and access roads to the targets were constructed. Bomb ranges numbered 2,450 square miles on ranch and Indian reservation land by the end of 1942. At that time, a total of 24 targets, simulated cities and warships, were in use on the ranges.
  Bombardier school was 12 to 18 weeks during which a student dropped approximately 160 bombs; precise records were kept of hits and misses. The elimination rate for trainees was 12 percent, and upon graduation, a new bombardier was transferred to an operational training unit and trained for overseas duty. Albuquerque was an operational training facility, and the first class of 61 bombardiers from the Albuquerque base school graduated 7 March 1942. By 1945, Albuquerque's flying training field had turned out 5,719 bombardiers and 1,750 regular pilots for the B-24 bomber alone. The 51st class to complete the bombardier training course included 143 bombardiers.  Chiang Kai-shek pilots and bombardiers received training from
caption: Ground Classroom Training
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