Dyersburg Army Air Base Dyersburg Army Air Base is an inactive United States Air Force base , approximately 2 miles north of Halls , Tennessee . It was active during World War II as a training airfield . It was closed on 30 November 1945 Dyersburg AAB was the largest combat aircrew training school built during the early war years . It was the only inland B - 17 Flying Fortress training base east of the Mississippi River . The base was located on , not including the practice range . Approximately 7 , 700 crew men received their last phase training at DAAB . 114 crew men lost their lives . History . Origins . The Dyersburg Army Air Base ( DAAB ) , promoted by Congressman Jere Cooper and solicited by local officials of Dyersburg in 1941 , was actually located near the edge of Halls , Tennessee since an Army study indicated that the Lauderdale County site was better suited for the base . The origins of Dyersburg Army Air Base begin in early 1942 when the War Department because interested in building an air base in the Halls , Tennessee area . Tennessee congressmen encouraged the Air Corps , and an article in the local newspaper at the end of March noted the visits by Army survey teams to the area . Further reports by the paper were noted throughout the spring of 1942 and on 13 April , the first offers for land purchaces were opened and office space for Army officials was leased in Halls for engineering space . Approximately 2 , 400 acres of land was leased by the War Department and turned over to the Air Corps at the present Arnold Field , this included the relocation of over 70 families from their traditional homesteads . Grading of the land began in late May . Dyersburg Army Air Base officially became active with the activation of the 910th Quartermaster Company Aviation ( Service ) , on 26 August 1942 , however the base was far from ready for operational service . Other early units assigned with the 908th Guard Squadron on 19 October and the 373d Sub - depot on 1 October . Construction of the base began in earnest in September when runway construction began , as well as the building of a large support base with barracks , various administrative buildings , maintenance shops and hangars . The station facility consisted of a large number of buildings based on standardized plans and architectural drawings , with the buildings designed to be the " cheapest , temporary character with structural stability only sufficient to meet the needs of the service which the structure is intended to fulfill during the period of its contemplated war use " was underway . To conserve critical materials , most facilities were constructed of wood , concrete , brick , gypsum board and concrete asbestos . Metal was sparsely used . The station was designed to be nearly self - sufficient , with not only hangars , but barracks , warehouses , hospitals , dental clinics , dining halls , and maintenance shops were needed . There were libraries , social clubs for officers , and enlisted men , and stores to buy living necessities . Three long 6 , 167 ' runways were constructed in a triangle configuration , oriented N / S , NE / SW and SW / NE . An extra - large parking ramp was constructed for the four - engine bombers along with numerous taxiways and navigational aids . Construction continued through the fall and winter of 1942 and 1943 , and by the summer of 1943 the station consisted of over 300 buildings of various configurations and uses . In effect , a city was built on what was a year earlier cotton fields . Although barracks were moved from other sites and many built for the soldiers , very little housing was available for families . Citizens in Brownsville , Ripley , Halls and Dyersburg made room for the influx of wives , mothers and children who wanted to spend a short time with their soldiers before they went to combat . Attics , garages , and closets were transformed into sleeping areas . Vice - President Harry Truman visited the base during the war as did country singer Roy Acuff and Governor Jim McCord . Heavy Bomber Training . Dysersburg AAB was placed under the Army Air Forces II Bomber Command on 1 February 1943 , and the 346th Bombardment Group was assigned to the field on 26 February with four training squadrons . The 502d and 505th Bombardment squadrons provided B - 24 Liberator training , while the 503d and 504th Bombardment squadrons provided B - 17 Flying Fortress combat crew training . Training conducted at the field were second and third phases of combat crew training . These phases of training were designed to train flight crew members of the heavy bombers to blend their individual skills together into a team . Second phase training was focused on bombing , gunnery and flying the aircraft under instrument flight conditions . These training missions were flown with full crews . Third phase training emphasized squadron and group operations , especially with formation flying in the combat " box " which was developed by Eighth Air Force to maximize the firepower of the bomber aircraft while also maximizing its defenses against attacking enemy fighters . Also long distance navigation , target identification was taught along with mock combat runs over targets . Ground synthetic training devices , such as the Celestial Navigation Tower were also used . This device simulated flying conditions in any weather , day or night and taught instrument flying , radio navigation and also flying by stars at night . Another training device was called the " ditching pond " which taught heavy bomber pilots how to perform controlled water landings . To help acclimate the combat crews soon to be deployed to Eighth Air Force , some streets and buildings on the base were renamed with English names of bases in the United Kingdom . Dyersburg AAF was unofficially called " Peterborough Airdrome " after a simulated station in England . In June 1943 , the 451st Bombardment Group arrived at Dyersburg , the only operational group to be trained as a unit at the base . It ' s 724th , 725th , 726th and 727th Bombardment Squadrons underwent second and third phase training with the group ' s B - 17s at the base separately from the 346th , with B - 24 Liberators before leaving for Wendover Field , Utah in July before deploying to Twelfth Air Force in North Africa during November . On 1 May 1944 , the 346th Bombardment Group was inactivated as part of an overall reorganization of training . Dyersburg assumed responsibility for all three phases of heavy bomber training , phase one training added night flying and long distance flying training for navigators . Bombardier training and gunnery training was also added . The 346th was re - designated the 223d Combat Crew Training School , Army Air Field , Dyersburg , Tennessee . The four training squadrons were redesignated as squadron " A " , " B " , " C " and " D " . In December 1944 , P - 63 Kingcobra fighters were assigned to the school to help train flexible gunners in fighter defense . 1 March 1945 saw the transfer of Dyersburg AAB jurisdiction from Second Air Force to Third Air Force , as the mission of Second Air Force became the training of B - 29 Superfortress crews and replacement personnel . The 223d CCTS was re designated to the 330th . There was also a decline in the training hours from three 5 hour periods each day to two , six days a week . Third Air Force , whose primary focus was fighter pilot training , also assigned additional fighter aircraft types to the filed , including P - 40 Warhawk s and later , with P - 51 Mustang s . Several different types of fighters , with different flying uncharacteristics increased the reality of training for student gunners . Closure . With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 , Dyersburg AAB was out of a job . The B - 29 Superfortress was the strategic bomber used in the Pacific , and replacement heavy bomber crews were no longer needed . Those B - 24 Liberator squadrons still operating in India and Burma , along with the B - 24s used by Fifth and Seventh Air Force s in the Pacific could be supported by a limited number of trainees at Dyersburg ( Note : B - 17s were withdrawn from the Pacific in 1943 to support the European Theater , and never used to any great degree in the CBI ) . Training was drastically curtailed , and was completely stopped by the end of August with the Japanese surrender . To quote Lt . Colonel Robert Little ( Ret . ) , " Our job was to give about one hundred more hours of flying — we would give them instrument flying , a lot of take offs and landings , some formations , and a little bit of navigation — to men coming from camps like Roswell , New Mexico , and a transition school for B - 17 s . " On 1 September 1945 Dyersburg AAF was placed on standby status by Third Air Force . Despite a flurry of activity by Congressmen representing Tennessee , the facility was closing , as most temporary training airfields in the United States were . Demobilization was the word of the day . In 1946 , with World War II over , the DAAB was deactivated , and the base was hastily dismantled , land was sold , and barracks and guard shacks were moved to private property . The former morgue was moved and became a two bedroom residence later occupied by a mayor of Halls . The Army left as quickly as it arrived . Dyersburg today . When the base closed it was converted to civilian uses . The airfield became " Arnold Field Airport " , and over the years , the hundreds of buildings of the support station located to the southwest of the airfield were sold , removed or torn down . Today , the only evidence of the containment area are a Norden bombsight storage building , tall chimneys where the theatre and other sites were located , and the large aircraft parking apron . Forlorn of aircraft , the apron now had hundreds of over the road trailers and an open storage yard with a few buildings erected on the concrete . one wartime hangar out of the original five remain . The Veteran ' s museum , in which a large number of artifacts and other exhibits are on display is in a building on the former aircraft parking apron . A large agricultural chemical plant was built on the former station area , but much of it was removed with the roads and streets torn up ; the land returned to agricultural production , with the street grid of the support station being obliterated . The former north - south runway is used as the runway for Arnold Field Airport , along with lots of overgrown things apparently dumped on the parallel north - south taxiway of the old military airbase . The other two runways and assorted taxiways of the former airfield remain , abandoned , although they appear in good condition after decades of disuse .