Great Bend Army Air Field Great Bend Army Air Field is a closed United States Air Force base . It is located west - southwest of Great Bend , Kansas , and was closed in 1946 . Today it is used as Great Bend Municipal Airport . Great Bend Army Air Field ( AAF ) is significantly historic as it was in the first group United States Army Air Forces B - 29 Superfortress bases for initial training on the aircraft in the summer of 1943 . Along with Walker Army Air Field near Victoria , Pratt Army Air Field near Pratt and Smoky Hill Army Air Feld near Salina the initial cadre of the 58th Bombardment Wing was formed . The 58th Bomb Wing was the first B - 29 combat wing of World War II and engaged in the first long - range strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands beginning in March 1944 from bases in India . History . The first public announcement of intentions to build an airfield at Great Bend , Kansas on the Arkansas River in Barton county , came in the form of a telegram from Sen . Arthur Capper of Kansas to the secretary of the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce on 30 September 1942 . But , of course , by then all the preliminary work had been done . In July of that year the site at Great Bend had been chosen . Nor was all the initiative left to the Army . A committee of leading citizens from Great Bend and Hoisington had made the original proposal . Originally , plans called for the Civil Aeronautics Administration to supply the funds , and , with war ' s end , Barton county and Great Bend would acquire ownership . However , this tentative arrangement was subsequently changed so that the field was built under the auspices of the Air Force . Originally intended to serve merely as a satellite base of Smoky Hill Army Air Field at Salina , Kansas , the physical plant at Great Bend was initially decidedly limited in its functional utility and in size . Most of the construction work was done by Patti - McDonald Construction Company of Kansas City , but the concrete work on runways and taxiways was undertaken by the W . L . Johnson Construction company . Essentials were completed first . Three 8 ' 000 - foot concrete runways were constructed to accommodate B - 29s , each 150 feet wide . Most of the buildings were Theater of Operations construction while some were of the Mobilization type . The Mobilization type buildings included the station hospital , theater , chapel , and Link training buildings . There were three hangars with a parking apron a mile long and 450 feet wide were constructed . Where before there had been only open farm land , this new city now contained over 200 buildings , a water storage and distribution system , sewage system and treatment plant , electric transmission lines . These were followed in time by facilities for recreation and services . During the summer and fall of 1943 a service club , theater , and bowling alley were completed . B - 29 Superfortress training . Capt . Theodore C . Reid , post engineer , was the first officer to report for duty on the base . He arrived on 18 January 1943 . The first enlisted men to arrive , detachments of the 501st Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron , the 1159th Guard Squadron , and the 902d Quartermaster Company , were necessarily housed in Great Bend for a time , there being no facilities on the base . On 13 February 1943 the 501st was transferred to Great Bend to become the headquarters squadron on the new field . Capping the inchoate organizational structure , Lt . Col . Glenn M . Pike assumed command of the field on 26 February . The first recorded Morning Report , dated 5 March 1943 , lists 13 officers and 182 enlisted men . From these modest beginnings , which was , of course a skeleton force even for the limited role the field was originally designed to play , Great Bend was to grow impressively , both as a mission and physical plant . By 31 January 1945 a total of 6 , 409 personnel would be stationed there . In keeping with its scheduled function of processing heavy bombardment groups , Great Bend Army Air Field was assigned to the 21st Bombardment Wing on 16 January 1943 . It was the function of the 21st to operate processing bases , but , besides processing it did some training also . As early as March 1943 it was known that the Great Bend AAF was to be charged with the responsibility of training personnel for the new B - 29 very heavy bomber . on 1 July 1943 Second Air Force transferred the 5th Heavy Bombardment Processing Unit to Great Bend to facilitate the training program . To bring its nomenclature more into harmony with its function , the 5th Heavy Bombardment Processing Unit was redesignated the 73d Bombardment Operational Training Wing on 17 August . But the new organization endured for scarcely four months before it was disbanded on 22 October , subsequent to the reassignment of the 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing to Second Air Force . Both the personnel and the several bases of the 73d , among which figured Great Bend Army Air Field , were transferred to the 58th . To accommodative the B - 29 , physical expansion of necessity became the order of the day . Original plans were altered , providing for considerable additions to the runway and taxiway systems . Additional troop housing was built , and new hangars we constructed especially designed to accommodate the B - 29 . Great Bend received the 444th Bombardment Group ( VH ) and by April 1944 , its training completed , the 444th departed for overseas service . During the remainder of its career , Great Bend was destined to train three more very heavy bombardment groups , the 498th , the 19th , and 333d , and in addition , it retrained the ground echelon of the 489th back from Europe for redeployment to the Pacific . The extreme development issues of B - 29 aircraft , however , hampered the training efforts for some time . Consequently , for several months the group in training at Great Bend perforce used second - line B - 17Es and B - 17Fs and B - 26C ' s for the most part , with a sprinkling of B - 29 ' s when they became available . On 25 March 1944 the units permanently assigned to Great Bend AAF were reorganized in the 243d AAF Base Unit ( OTU ) ( VH ) . Thereafter , Great Bend was organized under the standard plan for OTU ( Operational Training Unit ) bases . However , since the new directorate was not prepared immediately to take up its burden , the group in training at that time , the 498th , continued to train itself as the 444th had done before it . Consequently , it was only with the 19th Bombardment Group ( VH ) , which began training in September 1944 , that the 243d AAFBU took over the training responsibilities . Beginning with the winter of 1945 , part of the flying training was conducted at Borinquen Field , Puerto Rico . The primary purpose of this program , termed the " Gypsy Task Force , " was to take advantage of the good flying weather in Puerto Rico during the winter months , enabling the crews to complete their training much quicker than would otherwise have been the case . With this phase of training over , the crews would return to Great Bend AAF to prepare for departure to a staging area . The program was discontinued in April 1945 , after only one season . With the arrival of the ground echelon of the 489th Bombardment Group in February 1945 from the European theater , Great Bend became one of the first redeployment installations in the country . At that time the 333d Bombardment Group ( VH ) was receiving its regular training , but the ground echelon of the 489th was trained on B - 29 maintenance alongside the men of the 333d . After a relatively short transition course in the B - 29 ( they were already experienced maintenance men ) the 489th left in March to join the air echelon of the group , which had received transition training at several different bases . Closure . Victory over Japan had a direct effect on the mission and activity of the base . The 333d Bombardment Group ( VH ) , having completed its training , left Great Bend during July and August 1945 . No other groups were assigned for a full schedule of training , but the 44th Bombardment Group ( VH ) and the 405th Service Group used Great Bend as an assembly point . Indeed , in this period the primary mission of the base became that of discharging qualified men — or rather of transferring them to separation centers . Great Bend became a temporary home for Boeing B - 29 Superfortresses being produced by Boeing Wichita until the production line shut down in October . One of the aircraft stored at Great Bend was Kee Bird 45 - 2176 , and other Superfotresses used by Strategic Air Command into the 1950s for various missions . On 25 October 1945 the base was officially informed by Second Air Force that the installation would be put on a standby basis on 31 December 1945 . Following this announcement , activities on the base ( except that of shipping men to separation centers ) slowed up considerably . During December the 44th Bombardment Group ( VH ) and the 405th Air Service Group were transferred to Salina Army Air Field . Second Air Force had placed Great Bend AAF in the category of those fields whose retention was desirable for standby , with a possibility of being reopened on 30 days ' notice . Consequently , one of the principal activities of December consisted of inactivating buildings . As late as March 1946 Great Bend was still in the category of temporarily inactive or standby under the Second Air Force . However , the field was never subsequently activated . For a short time , during 1950 ( and possibly 1949 ) , the field was host to an Air Force reserve unit . Sources are lacking by which to trace the subsequent steps leading to complete inactivation and transfer to the Army ' s District Engineer , Seventh Service Command at Omaha , Nebraska who assumed jurisdiction over the field , pending disposition by March 1951 . Excess buildings and demilitarized equipment were sold or transferred to other bases . Some were torn down and sales were held for scrap lumber of torn down buildings , fence posts , barbed wire and other items which no longer had a useful need . Current status . The General Services Administration eventually turned the air base over to local government officials . Since then the installation has been operated by the city of Great Bend as its municipal airport . The World War II airfield remains largely intact , two of the runways still in use by the civil airport . The large parking apron remains , along with several wartime hangars . A few wartime buildings appear to be in use to the east of Airport Road ( SW 40th Avenue ) which crosses thought the former station area . Outlines of other structures removed from the site are visible in aerial photography in otherwise grassy areas . Many streets remain along with the outline of the base parade ground and headquarters . The former wartime airfield can be reached travelling southwest on U . S . Route 56 from Great Bend .