Pyote Air Force Base Pyote Air Force Base was a World War II United States Army Air Forces training airbase . It was on a mile from the town of Pyote , Texas on Interstate 20 , twenty miles west of Monahans and just south of U . S . Highway 80 , east of El Paso . It was nicknamed " Rattlesnake Bomber Base " for the numerous rattlesnake dens that were uncovered during its construction . At the height of its use in 1944 , the base had over 6 , 000 officers and enlisted men either permanently assigned or temporarily attached . In addition , there were hundreds of civilians that came from all over the United States to work on the base . After World War II , thousands of reserve aircraft were stored there , one of which was the B - 29 " Enola Gay " . Today , most of the base is gone . Other than the concrete runways , taxiways and ramp , virtually nothing remains that would tell the casual observer that this was once a major training center responsible for turning out highly trained flying crews . the West Texas State School was situated on the site . Located on I - 20 at exit 66 . Origins . Pyote Army Air Field was established as a B - 17 Flying Fortress crew training base during World War II . Initially newly established bomber groups were trained at Pyote , then it was switched to training replacement aircrew members that were deployed to combat units overseas . Initially , Pyote Army Airbase was assigned to Second Air Force , then in April 1944 to USAAF Continental Air Forces training command . Two main runways , each about 8 , 000 feet long and 150 feet wide , and a taxiway formed a triangle pattern on the flat , arid land . Construction of the facilities , including five large hangars , shops , warehouses and living quarters , began on 5 September 1942 . World War II use . The first troops were assigned within a month , well before the base was completed . Troops and civilian technicians poured in , and the population of the base grew steadily to a peak of over 6 , 500 in October 1944 . Within four months of its opening , the base had become the largest bomber installation in the country . Despite morale problems caused by isolation and the shortage of off - base recreation and of dependents ' housing , Pyote achieved a distinguished record in molding inexperienced individuals into effective bomber crews . After the arrival of the famed 19th Bombardment Group on January 1 , 1943 , and the ceremonial inauguration of its training program on January 5 , 1943 , Pyote rapidly turned out crews proficient in hitting targets from the B - 17 Flying Fortress until the summer of 1944 , when it was switched to the B - 29 Superfortress . The 19th BG was the first air force unit to bomb Japanese targets . It flew to Pyote directly from combat in the Pacific . The base was redesignated the 19th Combat Crew Training School late in 1943 and then replaced on March 30 , 1944 , by the 236th Army Air Forces Base Unit ( Combat Crew Training School ) . Known B - 17 units trained at Pyote AAB were : In June 1945 the base claimed records for the most B - 29 training hours flown by any base in a single month ( 7 , 396 ) , in a week ( 1 , 873 ) and in a day ( 321 ) . Known B - 29 groups which trained at Pyote AAB were : With the end of the war in the Pacific in August 1945 , both of these groups were inactivated . Postwar use . Aircraft storage depot . Control of Pyote was transferred from the Fourth Air Force to the Air Technical Service Command / San Antonio Air Technical Service Command on November 15 , 1945 , at the end of the war . The base became an aircraft storage depot . During the postwar years , the temporary tar - paper and wooden buildings were largely sold off , the personnel using more substantial concrete structures for their duties along with the hangars and support buildings by the flightline ramp . At its peak in 1948 , Pyote Air Force Base was maintained by the 4141st Army Air Forces ( later Air Force ) Base Unit , and housed 2 , 042 stored planes , mostly B - 29s and B - 17s , but including B - 25s , A - 26s , C - 47s , P - 63s , P - 51s , AT - 7s , L - 5s and L - 4s . Aircraft storage and the cocooning of some of these planes was the last major activity at Pyote Airfield , which was the responsibility of the 2753d Aircraft Storage Squadron . Storage included not only preserving planes for future use but also transferring some of the stored planes to other Air Force units for their use . Corrosion control crews removed , cleaned and treated the turrets in all of the B - 29s . The aircraft were " cocooned " to seal out the elements from the interior , and the aircraft were kept in flyable reserve storage . Best known of all the aircraft stored at Pyote was the B - 29 Enola Gay , from which the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima . Arriving at Pyote on 12 January 1952 , the ownership of the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution . The Enola Gay was taken out of storage and flown to Andrews Air Force Base , Maryland on December 2 , 1953 , for preservation at the National Air and Space Museum . It was the last time the Enola Gay flew . Two other notable aircraft put in storage at Pyote was the B - 17D " Swoose " ( arrived 18 January 1952 - Departed December 1953 ) which was the only B - 17 to survive the bombing of Clark Air Base on 8 December 1941 and manage to escape from the Philippines , and the XB - 42 Mixmaster , a one - of - a - kind aircraft . Beginning in 1950 , the demands for B - 29s to be used in the Korean War meant that nearly 100 of the aircraft stored at Pyote were refurbished and sent to active - duty units on Okinawa for use in combat , while some stored B - 29s were authorized to be used for cannibalization to furnish spare parts to operational aircraft . Many of the B - 29 ' s stored at Pyote would be flown by the men of the 19th Bomb Group . This is the same group that was the first to serve at Pyote in 1943 . However , the air battles between the B - 29s and Soviet MiG - 15 s , in the skies of North Korea made it was clear that the age of the jet had arrived which made most of the propeller - driven combat aircraft stored at Pyote obsolete . After the 1953 Armistice in Korea , the Air Force ordered most of the remaining planes at Pyote to be scrapped , and activity on the base was sharply curtailed . Its mission became the reclamation and salvage of the stored aircraft . The B - 29s stored at the base were very important as the reclamation process consisted of removing all serviceable and reparable items to support the operational B - 29s still in service . A smelter was installed on the base and as the aircraft were disassembled and parts removed , the remnants were recycled with the metal sold for scrap . The last Base Commander , Lt . Col . Max A . Piper , was notified that the base was scheduled for deactivation on 31 December 1953 , and the base went on standby status , leaving only a twenty - seven man caretaker crew to maintain the facility . The last plane left Pyote AFB sometime in 1955 along with the standby crew . At that time most of the permanent buildings and hangars remained , although abandoned . Air Defense Radar Station . In April 1958 , the base was reopened as Pyote Air Force Station ( TM - 186 ) , a radar installation acting as one link in a chain of installations that were part of an early warning network in case of Soviet air attack during the Cold War . The 697th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron , an Air Defense Command 34th Air Division unit , operated a radar site approximately southwest of the main containment area . The 697th ACWS operated a Bendix AN / FPS - 3 search radar with a range of around 200 miles ; it also operated a General Electric AN / FPS - 6 height finder radar with a range around 300 miles . The station functioned as a Ground - Control Intercept ( GCI ) and warning station . As a GCI station , the squadron ' s role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit ' s radar scopes . In addition to the radar station , the Air Force built base housing , and several support buildings . The NW / SE runway was also activated and used to fly crews in and out of the base and for logistical support . In March 1963 the Air Force ordered the site to close . Operations at Pyote ceased on 1 August 1963 . With the ADC facility closed , Pyote AFB was declared surplus , and turned over to the General Services Administration ( GSA ) for disposal . Current status . Following the deactivation of the site in 1963 , the facilities were disposed of by the GSA . The Air Defense Command support buildings along with the Base family housing was provided to the West Texas Children ' s Home , and the land and remaining buildings were turned over to the University of Texas at Austin . The Confederate Air Force used the runway and some of the remaining buildings on the flightline in the early 1960s , but the remoteness of the base led to it being closed by 1965 as uneconomic . The last of the original World War II support buildings on the base were gone by 1977 . There were once six huge hangars fronting the concrete ramp . Five are visible in an aerial photo dated 1977 . At some point after 1980 , four of the hangars were apparently removed / destroyed . At least one of them was evidently intentionally destroyed in 1979 in the course of filming the movie " Hangar 18 " ( 1980 ) . By 1985 a single large hangar ( the former 3d Echelon Maintenance Hangar ) remained and slowly deteriorating runways and taxiways were all that marked the once - busy bomber base . At some point between 1989 – 96 , the roof and most of the walls of the former 3d Echelon Maintenance Hangar were removed , leaving only a hollow grid of the side walls of the hangar standing . The west side of the former AAF / AFB , where the actual airfield was , is deserted . Runways and taxiways , hardstands and the flightline apron exist with tall weeds and other sparse vegetation slowly taking over the concrete areas . The Air Defense Command radar site southeast of the base is abandoned and full of junk vehicles ; the buildings on it still standing in a deteriorated state . The property was being used by the Texas Youth Commission ' s West Texas State School . The former AFB family housing ( small , individual units ) was used by the prison staff . The state school closed in 2010 . The original entrance has been refurbished , and today stands as a memorial to the men and women who worked and trained here , many of whom gave their lives while learning to effectively use the B - 17 and B - 29 . In the town of Pyote , about 15 miles west of Monahans , there is a museum honoring the memory of the men and women who served there . Pyote Army Airfield played an important role in the local community during World War II . Base personnel had a long - lasting social relationship with the local citizens and the base itself created jobs and great economic prosperity for the community . Pyote was quite literally transformed by the base . When the base finally closed for good in the early 1960s , it left a lasting impression on the local community . Base was operated as Pyote Dragstrip in the early 1960s ,