Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Air Education and Training Command (AETC) following a merger with Air University (AU) on 1 July 1993.
ATC was organized on 1 July 1946 as a re-designation of Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC) as part of the re-organization of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) after World War II.
For nearly 50 years, ATC was the primary training organization of the United States Air Force from its inception as an independent service in September 1947. It provided pilot and aircrew training; technical training, and enlisted and officer basic training.
At the end of the Cold War, it was merged with Air University (AU) in July 1993 as part of a major top-to-bottom reorganization of the USAF. Personnel, equipment and resources of both organizations were re-designated as Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which assumed the mission of both organizations, but retained AU as a subordinate organization within AETC.
History
Postwar era
Formation
On 1 July 1946, Army Air Forces Training Command was re-designated as Air Training Command (ATC). Since the end of World War II in September 1945, AAF Training Command had been undergoing rapid contraction, actually begun earlier in 1945 as planners understood the changing forces of the war against Nazi Germany, which ended in May 1945. Excess training bases across the United States had begun to be shut down and units consolidated during the summer of 1945 as the training needs of the USAAF was being refocused to support the requirements of those USAAF combat units in the war against Imperial Japan. The Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 and the end of the war in the Pacific in September 1945 began a rapid demobilization of the U.S. armed forces. Large numbers of temporary training bases were closed and units were discontinued in late 1945 and early 1946 as the US military transitioned from a wartime footing to a peacetime one.
For that reason, ATC was organized in the summer of 1946 to become the main training organization of the postwar USAAF. One of the major organizational changes of the postwar USAAF was the elimination of the "command" organizational echelon. While most wartime Commands became "Air Divisions" in the postwar USAAF table of organization, the USAAF Training Command was elevated to the major air command echelon along with the new Tactical Air Command (TAC), Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Air Defense Command (ADC).
Organization
ATC was organized around the AAFTC's Flying Training Command and Technical Training Commands, which were redesignated as the ATC Flying and Technical Training Divisions on 1 November 1946. A third Division was formed with the creation of the ATC Indoctrination Division, which was organized around the Military Training Center in San Antonio, Texas (which had earlier been a part of Technical Training Command). All three Divisions of ATC were co-equal in status.
In June 1946, the USAAF discontinued the World War II Flying Training Wings allocated to AAFTC and each training installation was commanded by its designated Army Air Forces Base Unit (AAFBU). In September 1947, upon establishment of the United States Air Force (USAF) as an independent service, the AAFBUs on the permanent Army Air Forces bases became Air Force Base Units (AFBU) upon the bases' transfer to the USAF. By mid-1948, with the adoption by the USAF of the Hobson Plan Wing-Base organization (as opposed to the AFBU Base organization), the AFBUs were discontinued or redesignated in favor of new USAF four-digit "table of distribution units" established by USAF or the Major Commands.
The Army Air Forces had set a post-war goal of 70 groups; however, Congress balked at funding the ambitious undertaking. Instead, the USAAF had to downscale its plans, settling on 55 groups. Congress passed the National Security Act of September 1947, and soon after, the Air Force became a separate service with its own civilian service secretary, equal to the Army and Navy.
By 31 December 1947, the USAF was 55 groups strong, with ATC being allocated thirteen (13) training bases. Earlier in the year, the ATC commander, Lieutenant General John K. Cannon, had told General Carl A. Spaatz, USAF Chief of Staff, that ATC would do all it could to bring the new groups up to strength, but the training capability of ATC was extremely limited due to a severe lack of personnel and training funds.