page_title: Webb Air Force Base
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Webb Air Force Base / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard of planes at Webb AFB, Texas
context_page_description: Webb Air Force Base, previously named Big Spring Air Force Base, was a United States Air Force facility of the Air Training Command that operated from 1951 to 1977 in West Texas within the current city limits of Big Spring. Webb AFB was a major undergraduate pilot training facility for the Air Force, and by 1969, almost 9,000 pilots had been trained at Webb. The last operational wing at Webb AFB was the 78th Flying Training Wing.
context_section_description: The airfield was reactivated as Big Spring Air Force Base on 1 October 1951 by the United States Air Force for the Air Training Command (ATC) which established the 3560th Pilot Training Wing (Advanced Single-Engine). However, the command was not formally able to operationally activate the base until 1 January 1952 because the City of Big Spring had difficulty acquiring clear title to some of the property it intended to transfer to ATC
  The facility was brought back into service as a primary training installation because of the Korean War and the need for additional pilots. Four months later, on 18 May 1952, ATC changed the name of Big Spring Webb Air Force Base to memorialize 1st Lieutenant James L. Webb, a Big Spring native and World War II combat pilot in Europe, who was killed in a mishap off the Japanese coast flying a P-51 Mustang in 1949 during a training mission.
  Instruction of the first class began in April 1952. The initial mission of the 3560th PTW was basic, single-engine flight training. The wing was equipped with 37 T-28 Trojan propeller and 28 T-33 Shooting Star jet trainers.  The base population soon passed 2,000. With the end of the Korean War, in 1954 ATC reduced its basic single-engine pilot schools from seven to five, this saw the number of students at Webb remain basically the same as the number of new pilots needed was reduced. The propeller-driven T-28 was phased out in 1956 and converted all training to the jet-powered T-33.
  In 1956, the Air Defense Command's 331st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was transferred to Webb AGB from Stewart AFB, New York to defend the southern United States border on air intercept missions as part of the Central Air Defense Force. Originally flying the F-86D Sabre, the squadron upgraded to the F-102 Delta Dagger in 1960, then transitioned to the F-104 Starfighter in 1963. In March 1967, the 331st was redesignated the 4760th Combat Crew Training Squadron and charged with training Royal Jordanian Air Force students on F-104s. It was inactivated on 1 October 1967 when the Jordanians were recalled because of the war with Israel in the summer of 1967.
caption: Postcard from Webb showing Lockheed T-33A-1-LO, AF Ser. No. 53-5725, and North American F-86D-60-NA Sabre, AF Ser. No. 53-4062
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