Sampson Air Force Base Sampson Air Force Base is a closed United States military facility , last used by the United States Air Force Air Training Command as a Basic Military Training Center . It was closed in 1956 and put into caretaker status . As of at least the 2000s , parts of the facility have been converted to a civil picnic area called Sampson State Park . In addition , the United States Navy operates the Naval Undersea Warfare Center ( NUWC ) sonar test facility on a part of the facility . However , most of the former base is abandoned . History . USNTS Sampson . The facility was established initially by the United States Navy as a Naval Training Station ( USNTS Sampson ) in 1942 . The station was named after Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson . The Navy obtained 2 , 600 acres of former farmland and also vineyards for the facility on the east side of Lake Seneca , New York . Construction of the facility took 270 days to complete . Along with the training station , a 1500 - bed hospital was constructed . The mission of USNTS Sampson was Naval basic training for large numbers of new recruits . During the war , over 411 , 000 recruits were trained at the station In conjunction with the building of Sampson , the United States Army established its Seneca Army Depot adjacent to the Naval Station which was used to store a wide variety of Ammunition . Postwar use . With the end of the war , USNTS Sampson was closed , and turned over to the War Assets Administration in 1946 . Most of the facility was taken over by New York State which planned to establish a two - year junior community college on the faculty , keeping most of the buildings and using it as a campus . The USN Hospital was eventually taken over by the state of New York , renaming it the Willard State Hospital Sampson Annex in 1947 . The Station was used by NYS for use as a temporary college for 15 , 000 GI Bill students in July 1946 . ( 5 barracks were moved to Hobart College in Geneva , NY , 7 were moved to Syracuse University ) Sampson College operated from September 1946 to June 1949 and had matriculated 7 , 500 students of which 950 received two - year degrees . In 1949 , the former Naval Station was turned over to the United States Department of Agriculture , which used the buildings as warehouses as granaries . More than 110 , 000 bushels of excess wheat and 15 , 000 sacks of excess beans were stored at Sampson . In addition , the State of New York , realizing the scenic location of the former Naval Station , appropriated $ 50 , 000 for the creation of a state park at Sampson . Sampson AFB . With the outbreak of the Korean War , the United States Air Force took interest in the former Naval Station for use as a Basic Military Training Base . Custody of the most of the property of the training center was transferred to the Air Force in 1950 , and the Air Force named the facility Sampson Air Force Base on 15 November 1950 . With the Air Force establishing Sampson AFB , the park project was cancelled . The Air Force spent about $ 6 million on renovations and beginning in February 1951 started training what would be 16 , 000 Air Force recruits . Air Training Command established the 3650th Indoctrination ( later Military Training ) Wing to manage the base and conduct Basic Training , as its major facility at Lackland AFB , Texas was overflowing . During the first two weeks of 1951 , the population at Lackland AFB jumped from 36 , 513 to over 70 , 000 people . In addition , a third BMT center was established at Parks AFB , California to accommodate new enlistees . The mission of Sampson AFB was to provide formal basic training for all male and female enlisted personnel not having sufficient previous military training ; to establish and operate such assembly , processing and separation station as specifically directed ; to provide a comprehensive counseling program for Basic Indoctrinee personnel in order that these airmen may be most effectively assigned in accordance with Air Force requirements ; and to maintain training programs for accomplishing rehabilitation of garrison prisoners . The first trainees arrived on 1 Feb 1951 . The base employed about 700 civilians and had 600 permanent party troops . During the years before the Korean War , basic military training had lasted anywhere from 4 to 13 weeks . In the rush to flow recruits through the training system and into the theater of conflict , ATC reduced the course to seven weeks in 1950 and then to two weeks in January 1951 . With the opening of Sampson and Parks AFB for BMT , Shortly thereafter , ATC increased basic military training from seven weeks to eight . In July 1952 the Air Staff approved a 12 - week course , which ATC implemented on 1 August at Lackland and Parks and on 1 September at Sampson . However , after only two months , the Air Staff decided that the course should be shortened , and ATC developed an 11 - week program to begin in January 1953 . The host organization at Sampson was redesigned as the 3650th Military Training Wing , Air Training Command , in March 1953 . The Air Force also built a runway and other facilities at Sampson and converted the base to its needs . By 1953 , a single paved 5000 foot north / south runway ( Rwwy 17 / 35 ) was completed and a control tower , fire station and aircraft parking ramp was built on the west side , with B - 25 Mitchell , C - 47 Skytrain , and C - 45 Expeditor aircraft assigned . With the end of the Korean War and cutbacks in the military budget afterwards , Air Training Command discontinued its basic training school at Sampson AFB on 1 July 1956 . Shortly thereafter , ATC discontinued Sampson ' s 3650th Military Training Wing . By the time it was closed , over 300 , 000 airmen received basic training at Sampson AFB in preparation for service in the Korean War , as well as service in USAFE , Far East Air Force , and other United States Air Force major commands both in the United States and around the world . Three months later , on 1 October 1956 , control of Sampson AFB was transferred to the Rome Air Force Depot , Air Materiel Command and the base was placed in standby status . Post military use . Starting in 1957 to 1960 the airfield and some officer housing on the lake shore ( 449 acres ) were transferred to the Seneca Army Depot , the facility being renamed Sampson Army Airfield and used to support the depot . The former hospital area was operated as a state school . In 1971 , the State of New York closed the School due to budget cuts and while empty , a fire destroyed most of the main hospital complex . Contaminated by asbestos , the site was cleaned and is still owned by the Department of Mental Hygiene but remains vacant . In 1960 the State of New York purchased and assumed ownership of all tracts of land on the former base at a cost of $ 500 , 000 . Most of the buildings were dismantled and materials were sold for re - usage throughout the Finger Lakes Region . One of the Drill Halls is now in use at Middlebury College , Vermont . Major roads and identification signs remain today on the base . At some point in the mid - 1960s , the airfield was opened to civil use as North Star Seneca Airpark . The duration of the civilian use of the Seneca airfield has not been determined , but it was evidently a brief period as the Army returned it to military control during the Vietnam War and renamed it Seneca Army Airfield . It was used for security at Seneca Army Depot , with the former fire station being used as hangars for the helicopters supporting depot security . Air Force C - 123 and C - 130 cargo aircraft also used the runway on occasion for transporting personnel and material to the depot . The Seneca Army Depot was identified for closure in 1995 as part of the BRAC process and Seneca AAF was closed by 2000 . Today . Today the airfield is being developed into an emergency services training site . Just inside the gate is a brand new State Police barracks , and sharing the building is a police & fire training center . A new fire training tower was built southeast of the control tower , and the 7 , 000 - foot runway is used for high - speed police pursuit training . The control tower & fire station are empty . The majority of the former Air Force base today is now abandoned . While the streets exist , most of the land is vacant as a result of the 1960 New York State facilities removal . However , a large cluster of buildings in the northeast part of the base remain in a very deteriorated condition , some having roofs , some not . The main gate on Sampson State Park Road , west of the intersection with NY Highway 96A , still stands guard over the base . The Sampson Air Force Museum is currently located in the building which was formerly the old stockade / brig . The displays are quite extensive , including a restored T - 33 Shooting Star aircraft on static display and a Falcon Memorial statue .