Graham Air Base Graham Air Base was a United States Air Force base located in Marianna , Florida . After it was closed in 1960 , it was reused as Marianna Municipal Airport . History . Marianna Army Airfield . The federal government acquired the airport at the city of Marianna in 1942 and added additional in order to construct the Marianna Army Air Field for the U . S . Army Air Forces . The airfield opened on 8 August 1942 and eventually had six hard surface runways averaging in length and was a training base for the Southeast Army Air Force Training Command . In addition to the main airfield , Marianna AAF also had the following known sub - bases and auxiliaries The Army Air Forces Pilot School ( Advanced - Single Engine ) was activated on 1 September 1942 , with the 17th Single Engine Flying Training Group being the Operational Training Unit . Aircraft used during training were P - 40 Warhawk s and AT - 6 Texan s . Marianna AAF was transferred from the jurisdiction of Eastern Flying Training Command to Third Air Force on 12 October 1944 . The station came under the command of the 137th Army Air Forces Base Unit . With the reassignment to Third Air Force , the mission of the base was changed from the training of pilots for single - engine pursuit fighter aircraft to training of combat crews for the A - 26 Invader light bomber aircraft . After the war ended , the airfield was closed on 15 February 1946 and the Federal Government returned control of to the City of Marianna in 1947 . Graham Air Base . In 1953 , the old Marianna Army Air Field was reactivated as a United States Air Force installation under the Air Training Command ( ATC ) in response to increased demands for pilots as a result of the Cold War and the associated increase in number of Air Force combat flying wings , especially within the Strategic Air Command . The facility was activated on 27 January 1953 and renamed Graham Air Base for William J . Graham , the school head and senior civilian instructor who provided flight training to pilots . Graham AB replaced Greenville Air Force Base , Mississippi as a contract pilot training school as Greenville AFB became an ATC basic single engine and jet pilot training school . The 3300th Pilot Training Squadron was reassigned from Greenville to Marianna to support the mission , with predominantly civilian instructors providing training in USAF PA - 18 Super Cub and AT - 6 Texan , and subsequently T - 34 Mentor and T - 28 Trojan aircraft , graduating a group of USAF student pilots from primary training every six weeks . Because its short runways could not readily accommodate the USAF jet trainers of the period , student pilots completing primary training were then assigned to other air force bases with longer runways for more advanced training in aircraft such as the T - 33 Shooting Star . Although its instructor cadre was primarily civilian , Graham AB was still an Air Force installation with an overall military cadre in command and operated under constant military supervision . Students were a combination of both commissioned USAF officers and non - commissioned air cadets , the latter who would receive their commissions upon completion of flight training . New bachelor officer quarters , cadet barracks and other facilities were built . The air base employed 700 civilians in addition to assigned USAF military cadre and student personnel . Notable graduates of initial pilot training at Graham AB include former Chief of the National Guard Bureau , Lieutenant General Russell C . Davis and former Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force , General Michael P . C . Carns , who was also a member of the first graduating class of the USAF Academy in 1959 . In June 1958 , the Air Force began replacing their prop - driven T - 28s with the first T - 37 Tweet jet trainers , and by 1960 , the Air Force was fully committed to transitioning to the Undergraduate Pilot Training ( UPT ) concept at selected Air Training Command installations with longer runways which would eventually host T - 37 Tweet and T - 38 Talon jet trainers . Facilities like Graham AB , with civilian contractor instructors and short runways became obsolete and were eventually closed in the early 1960s . The Air Force closed Graham AB in late 1960 , despite efforts of influential Florida Congressman Robert L . F . Sikes to keep it running . As the installation was being scaled down as a military facility , the industrial committee of the Junior Chamber of Commerce worked to adapt the air base into a combination industrial park and civilian airport . The 3300th Training Squadron was inactivated on 1 February 1961 . ATC wanted to close the base in March , but an Air Force imposed freeze on shipping property delayed its final closure . However , on 31 August 1961 the base was turned over to civil control . Civil use . Today the airport is known as Marianna Municipal Airport . In addition to its civilian general aviation traffic , the airport continues to see significant use by military aircraft , with one third of the airport ' s daily operations normally consisting of transient military training flights , primarily Army helicopters from Fort Rucker and Navy helicopters from Naval Air Station Whiting Field .