Goodfellow Air Force Base Goodfellow Air Force Base is a non - flying United States Air Force base located in San Angelo , Texas . As part of Air Education & Training Command ( AETC ) , Goodfellow ' s main mission is cryptologic and intelligence training for the Air Force , Army , Coast Guard , Navy and Marine Corps . Military firefighters are also trained here as part of the 312th Training Squadron . It is the home of the 17th Training Wing ( 17 TRW ) . The base is named for World War I aviator First Lieutenant John J . Goodfellow , Jr . History . Goodfellow ' s history traces to the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor , but its name registered the valor and sacrifice of an earlier conflict . On 14 September 1918 , 1st Lieutenant John J . Goodfellow , Jr . , of San Angelo , Texas , boarded his Salmson 2 A2 observation plane at Gondreville Airfield in France to conduct visual reconnaissance behind enemy lines . The mission was part of a larger undertaking just underway , a major American offensive intended to reduce the German salient near St . Mihiel . Unfortunately , adverse weather permitted observation only at a low altitude that exposed the lumbering Salmson to enemy pursuit . Three days later , the offensive a success , the young pilot ' s remains were recovered from his ruined craft and interred at the US military cemetery near Nancy , Meurthe - et - Moselle . The peace that arrived two months later endured a mere two decades more . Constrained by neutrality legislation , but witness to the train of aggression across Europe , Africa , and Asia , President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a program of preparedness which included the construction of facilities dedicated to advanced air training . Several such bases were envisioned for Texas and one , specifically , for the Fort Worth - Midland - San Angelo triangle . Civic leaders from San Angelo immediately commended their community to the U . S . War Department . A generous offer of sewage and electrical service , a railroad spur , and a 50 - year lease on at one dollar per year easily decided the issue . Construction of the new San Angelo Air Corps Basic Flying School began at once . Officially established on 17 August 1940 , the base was ready for occupancy by 21 January 1941 and the first classes of students soon arrived . On 11 June 1941 , in dedication to a young hero and in tribute to the community that shaped him , the base was officially renamed Goodfellow Field . The next four years witnessed the graduation of more than 10 , 000 trained pilots and the decoration of scores of these for outstanding heroism in action against Germany , Italy , and Japan . Still , the Axis collapse did not dissolve the Goodfellow mission . That was the lesson learned from that earlier day , from the peace that would not last . Goodfellow continued to train pilots into the post war era , primarily for large multiengine piston and turboprop aircraft , first on the AT - 6 Texan , the T - 28 Trojan and then , beginning in 1954 , on the twin - engine TB - 25 and B - 25 Mitchell . On 3 September 1958 , with nearly 20 , 000 aviators to its credit , Goodfellow graduated its last class of pilots , as the Air Force and Air Training Command transitioned to the new Undergraduate Pilot Training ( UPT ) construct with T - 37 and T - 38 Talon aircraft that required minimum runway lengths , far longer than Goodfellow ' s primary runways . It was a new mission now , and a look into the future . With the transfer of the base from Air Training Command ( ATC ) to the USAF Security Service ( USAFSS ) , Goodfellow ' s mission became the training of Air Force personnel in the advanced cryptologic skills that the Security Service required at installations worldwide . Eight years later , in 1966 , the mission expanded further to include joint - service training in these same skills for U . S . Army , U . S . Navy , and U . S . Marine Corps personnel . Although flight operations at Goodfellow decreased dramatically after 1958 , minimal activities continued with both transient aircraft and locally - based Cessna U - 3 Administrator s ( 1958 – 1971 ) , DeHavilland U - 6 Beaver s ( 1960 – 1966 ) , Piasecki H - 21 , CH - 21 and HH - 21 Workhorse helicopter s ( 1958 – 1966 ) and Cessna O - 2 Skymaster s ( 1972 – 1975 ) . Goodfellow ' s runways were permanently closed in March 1975 . After 38 years of pilot and then intelligence training , Goodfellow ' s mission had apparently come to a close with the announcement in 1978 that the base would revert to Air Training Command and was a candidate for closure . Since Goodfellow was a single - mission facility , its mission could perhaps be executed more economically elsewhere . By then , senior intelligence personnel had already begun seriously to contemplate the consolidation of all Air Force - managed intelligence training at one location . The site selected for intelligence training consolidation was Goodfellow , and the base was designated a technical training center on 1 March 1985 . During the next three years , intelligence training consolidation brought to Goodfellow advanced imagery training from Offutt AFB , Nebraska ; electronic intelligence operations training from Keesler AFB , Mississippi ; and targeting , intelligence applications , and general intelligence training from Lowry AFB , Colorado as a result of Lowry ' s identification for closure under BRAC . The successful completion of intelligence training consolidation on 30 June 1988 further facilitated the development of intelligence training integration , a multidisciplinary approach to the training of intelligence professionals . In 1992 , as part of an overall organizational restructuring of the U . S . Air Force , Air Training Command was inactivated , replaced by the Air Education and Training Command ( AETC ) , which became the " parent " major command for Goodfellow AFB . On 1 July 1993 , the 17th Training Wing was activated on Goodfellow AFB . With the change in name came a marked diversification and increase in Goodfellow ' s mission . Rounds one and two of the Base Realignment and Closure ( BRAC ) process transferred special instruments training from the former Lowry AFB and fire protection training from the former Chanute AFB , Illinois to Goodfellow . To support the increased training load , Goodfellow underwent extensive modernization and growth . With new training facilities , dormitories , dining halls , a commissary , a youth center and a physical fitness center . Facilities . The following are some of the facilities at Goodfellow AFB