page_title: Air Training Command
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Air Training Command / History / Postwar era / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: A T-37 Tweet aircraft from the 85th Flying Training Squadron, Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, flies over Lake Amistad during a training mission. Also later stationed at the 64th Flying Training Wing at Reese Air Force Base, Texas. The T-37 Tweet is a twin-engine jet used for training undergraduate pilots, undergraduate navigator and tactical navigator students in fundamentals of aircraft handling, and instrument, formation and night flying. The twin engines and flying characteristics of the T-37 give student pilots the feel for handling the larger, faster T-38 Talon or T-1A Jayhawk later in the undergraduate pilot training course. The instructor and student sit side by side for more effective training. The cockpit has dual controls, ejection seats and a clamshell-type canopy that can be jettisoned. 한국어: 텍사스 Laughlin 공군기지의 제85 비행훈련편대 소속의 T-37 Tweet 비행기가 비행훈련도중 Amistad 호수를 지나고 있다. T-37 Tweet은 쌍발엔진 제트기로서, 조종사, 항법사, 전술항법사 과정의 학생들에게 비행기의 기초조작, 계기비행, 포메이션과 야간비행을 가르치는데 사용된다. 쌍발엔진과 비행특성은 학생들에게 더 큰 기종이자, 조종사 훈련 과정에서 조종하게 될 T-38 Talon이나 T-1A Jayhawk의 감각을 미리 배울 수 있게 해준다. 더욱 효과적인 훈련을 위해 비행교관과 학생이 나란히 옆에 탑승한다. 조종석은 조종간이 두개이며, 사출좌석과 제티슨이 가능한 캐노피등을 갖추고 있다.
context_page_description: Air Training Command is a former United States Air Force Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Air Education and Training Command following a merger with Air University on 1 July 1993.
  ATC was organized on 1 July 1946 as a re-designation of Army Air Forces Training Command as part of the re-organization of the United States Army Air Forces after World War II.
  For nearly 50 years, ATC was the primary training organization of the United States Air Force from its inception as an independent service in September 1947. It provided pilot and aircrew training; technical training, and enlisted and officer basic training.
  At the end of the Cold War, it was merged with Air University in July 1993 as part of a major top-to-bottom reorganization of the USAF. Personnel, equipment and resources of both organizations were re-designated as Air Education and Training Command, which assumed the mission of both organizations, but retained AU as a subordinate organization within AETC.
context_section_description: Even as combat continued in Korea, during 1952 the Air Force expanded to meet the threat of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in Europe, and potentially a direct conflict with Communist China in Asia.  As the Air Force expanded to meet those threats, ATC continued to expand as it activated five more flying training bases, bringing the number of primary installations to 42.
  During the last half of 1952, however, the volume of training conducted steadily decreased as the supply of trained pilots and technicians met the Air Force demand in almost all areas.  Air Training Command reached its Korean War peak of 176,446 personnel in June.
  The most important change in the training program involved the inauguration of four-phase pilot training. Phase one of the program included 12 weeks of preflight training. The second phase, called primary training, required 18 weeks and featured 20 hours of T-6 Texan flight training. Phase three, basic flight, lasted 16 weeks and included 130 hours of flying. This phase included flying in both the T-6 or T-28 and in tactical aircraft (T-33 jet trainer, F-80 jet fighter, F-51 conventional fighter, or B-25 multi-engine bomber). At the end of the third phase, cadets were commissioned and received pilot wings. When ATC completed its program of decentralization by activating the CTAF in March 1952, it then provided combat crew training to the major combat commands. Crew Training constituted the fourth phase of pilot training and covered an average of 12 weeks.
  With the end of the Korean War and cutbacks in the military budget afterwards, Air Training Command discontinued its basic training schools at Sampson and Parks AFB on 1 July 1956.  
  In 1960, ATC began looking at a new training concept, consolidated pilot training (CPT), combining preflight, primary, and basic instruction. Secretary of the Air Force Dudley C. Sharp approved the idea in March 1960, and Air Training Command intended to have the training program in operation by March 1961. At the same time, Secretary Sharp approved initiation of a consolidated pilot training program, ATC decided to replace all civilian flying instructors with military officers and to phase out all contract primary schools.  The last of these closed in spring 1961.
  Shortly after the beginning of the Korean War, the Air Staff transferred most of the combat aircrew training mission from the operational commands to ATC, placing an even heavier burden on the command. Air Force directed Air Training Command to double pilot production to 7,200 per year, and to increase technician production to 225,000 per year. With the end of the Korean War on 27 July 1953, Air Training Command again began to reduce its training activities.
  Many of the command's facilities were transferred to Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC) in the 1950s. Over the next ten years, ATC reduced its bases from 43 to 16, and its personnel from 271,849 to 79,272. In large part this was due to the return of the crew training mission to the operational commands. In 1958, ATC returned bomber crew training to SAC and fighter crew training to TAC.
  At about the same time, ATC gained another mission when it took over responsibility for the recruiting mission in 1954. Then in October 1957, Headquarters Air Training Command moved from Scott AFB, Illinois, to Randolph AFB, Texas, in order to reduce operating costs by being closer to its primary training facilities. Its three training air forces were inactivated between 1 July 1957 and 1 April 1958.
  One year later, the command began experimenting with eliminating propeller-driven aircraft from primary pilot training. "Project All-Jet" was a success, and in 1959, ATC began replacing the North American T-28 "Trojan" propeller-driven trainer with the Cessna T-37 "Tweety Bird" jet engine primary trainer.
caption: A T-37 Tweet from the 85th Flying Training Squadron, Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, flies over Lake Amistad during a training mission.
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