Spence Air Base Spence Air Base was a United States Air Force base that operated from 1941 to 1961 . It was later reopened at Spence Airport . History . The City of Moultrie gained its first official municipal airport , Clark Field , in the 1930s . In 1940 , local leaders , aware of the Federal government ' s airport building program , formed a committee to represent the community . The committee then contacted the Civil Aeronautics Administration ( CAA ) about the possibility of acquiring a modern CAA built airport at Moultrie . The CAA , receptive to the idea , informed the committee that once the local government provided the land the Federal government would fund the building of an airfield . Due to the impossibility of expanding Clark Field for a modern airport , Moultrie and Colquitt County then took an option on a tract of land northeast of the city . When the committee members learned the Army planned on establishing additional training bases in the Southeast , they traveled to Maxwell AAF , Alabama to secure an Air Corps airfield on the site . Air Corps engineers came to Moultrie in March 1941 . After inspecting the first site , they selected a more desirable site five miles ( 8 km ) southeast of the city . In June , after the War Department approved the second site , Moultrie and Colquitt County purchased the involved . World War II . Construction got underway on 15 July 1941 involving building airplane hangars , three concrete runways , several taxiways and a large parking apron and a control tower . Several large hangars were also constructed . Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly assembled . Most base buildings , not meant for long - term use , were constructed of temporary or semi - permanent materials . Although some hangars had steel frames and the occasional brick or tile brick building could be seen , most support buildings sat on concrete foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than plywood and tarpaper . It was named Spence Army Airfield after World War I hero Lt . Thomas Lewis Spence of Thomasville , Georgia who died in a 1918 aircraft crash in France . When the attack on Pearl Harbor came on 7 December 1941 a small military detachment of 27 officers and 39 enlisted men staffed the airfield It was used by the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command , Southeast Training Center ( later Eastern Flying Training Command ) for advanced single - engine flying training . The Army Air Forces Pilot School ( Advanced Single - Engine ) activated on 15 November 1941 . The North American AT - 6 Texan was the primary aircraft operated by the school . During World War II , Spence AAF controlled several auxiliary airfields : By September 1942 , Spence AAF had 146 AT - 6s . The peak of training took place in 1943 . Instrument training took place at Moultrie Municipal ( Aux No . 3 ) . Typically , 37 instructors with 83 enlisted men in support conducted instrument training with 33 AT - 6s from the Moultrie Municipal auxiliary base . One of Spence ' s shortcomings was the lack of a gunnery range . As a result , all classes deployed to Eglin AAF , Florida for two weeks of gunnery training . In early 1944 , the first P - 40 Warhawk s arrived at Spence AAF . Initially , only the best students received P - 40 training . Once sufficient numbers of P - 40s were acquired , all students were given five hours of P - 40 training . With the addition of P - 40 training , the single - engine training syllabus was extended from 10 to 15 weeks . After cadets received 70 hrs . training in the AT - 6 and five hours in the P - 40 , they were commissioned and given five more hours in the P - 40 . Spence , as other Army Air Force installations in Georgia , had its contingent of Women Airforce Service Pilots or WASPs . Their numbers were small , usually around four or five , but they performed utility flying that freed AAF pilots for more important duties . WASPs made engineering test flights after engine changes and broke in the engines of new aircraft . They ferried mail and personnel to the gunnery detachment at Eglin Field . WASPs rode with instructors and supervisory pilots during instrument proficiency fights and kept an eye out for conflicting air traffic . They also ferried aircraft and flew to Robins AAF near Macon to pick up critically needed parts . With the graduation of the class on 11 March 1945 , Spence ended single - engine advanced training . The AAF also closed the basic flying school at Cochran AAF in Macon and moved basic flying instruction to Spence flying the AT - 6 aircraft previously used for the advanced training . This was not without controversy , as it was felt that flying cadets who received their primary training in PT - 17 Stearman biplanes were not ready to fly the AT - 6 . Flight training continued until the airfield was placed on temporary inactive status on 30 November 1945 . Spence AAF became a satellite of Tyndall Field , Florida effective 15 December 1945 , but remained inactive as a military airfield throughout the rest of the 1940s , returning to civil use as Spence Airport . Local industry , government , and civic organizations used Spence Field for a wide variety of purposes . A circus even used the base for its winter quarters one year housing its elephants in one of the hangars . Spence Air Base . As a result of the Cold War and the expansion of the United States Air Force , Spence Air Base * was reopened and activated 16 April 1951 by the USAF Air Training Command , as a contract flying training school . The base had deteriorated badly over its six idle years and a major renovation project was required to return it to acceptable standards . The 3302d Flying Training Squadron ( Contract Flying ) was the operational training unit at the base , with ground and flight training being supplied by the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics . Repair work was still underway when the first United States Air Force ( USAF ) class , Class 52 - C , reported for training on 15 May 1951 . The base conducted flying training and contract flying training initially with T - 6G Texans and Piper PA - 18 Super Cub trainers , later being upgraded to Beechcraft T - 34 Mentor and North American T - 28 Trojan s in early 1954 . For a brief period during 1956 United States Army pilot trainees were trained in Cessna L - 19 aircraft at Spence AB . Spence Instructor Pilots received training in army procedures and six army classes totaling 148 trainees graduated between 4 January and 29 June 1956 . Training was conducted off of the sod area at Spence and the Sunset Auxiliary field nearby . This program was a precursor of the later Hawthorne School of Aeronautics contract Army Primary Flight Training Program at Lowe Field ( now Lowe Army Heliport ) at Fort Rucker , Alabama . From 1954 to 1959 , Air Force One , the Lockheed Constellation Columbine , landed at Spence Air Base no less than six times . President Dwight D . Eisenhower passed through Spence while en route to the plantation of the former United States Secretary of the Treasury , George Humphreys , in Thomasville . In 1957 , Henry Cabot Lodge and John Foster Dulles also flew in to confer with Eisenhower in Thomasville . The base received Cessna T - 37 Tweet jet trainers starting in December 1959 as part of " Project All - Jet " in attempt to determine effectiveness of primary flight training in one type of aircraft . In 1960 , ATC began looking at a new training concept — combining preflight , primary , and basic instruction into consolidated pilot training ( CPT ) , which evolved into the current undergraduate pilot training ( UPT ) format . 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 . Spence AB ended contract primary training in early December , with the transfer of the T - 37 aircraft being completed by 23 December 1960 . The base was inactivated and returned to civilian control on 31 March 1961 . Civil use . However , the USAF was still a presence at the civilian airport after its formal inactivation . Moody AFB in Valdosta made an agreement with the City of Moultrie to use the airfield for an Air Force auxiliary field . The Air Force extended the north¬west / southeast runway to for use by Moody ' s T - 33 Shooting Star s , followed by its T - 37 Tweet s and T - 38 Talon s . The military use of Spence Airport continues into the current - day . Between 2000 and 2005 , Spence served as an auxiliary field for the pilot training program at Moody , being used for take off and landing operations by their Raytheon T - 6 Texan II turbo - prop trainers . As of 2008 , Spence Airport still averages over 20 military flight operations per day . Part of the cantonment area eventually became the Moultrie Regional Industrial Park and a county correctional institution . In 1968 , Maule Aircraft built a manufacturing plant at Spence where it remains to this day . In 1978 , Spence first hosted the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition . In 2004 , the Sunbelt Expo has grown into the world ' s largest farm show with over 1 , 000 exhibitors . Since many of the visitors fly to the show , Spence ' s former control tower is manned during the event to control air traffic . Sunbelt Expo maintains a year round administration center at Spence . Today , three of Spence ' s wartime hangars are still in existence . Other buildings built by the Army Air Forces during the war also remain . . * Note : Air Training Command applied the " Air Base " designator to private contractor - operated flying training bases in the 1950s