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Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield In Wold War II

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The rise of Air Power in World War II is a story that is unprecedented in the United States. From ordering 435 airplanes in 1939, the US was to build 300,000 airplanes between July 1940 and August 1945. Planes are worthless without crews and the training organization expanded accordingly. Little Pyote Texas (population 100) was selected to be the site of a training base.

Texas was considered to be an ideal place for a training site. Lots of land, not so many people, low elevation (relative to Nevada, Wyoming, etc.) so air is denser, good flying weather most of the time. An Army base with a few hundred people would have done great things for Pyote businesses. No one expected 40,000 people.

This is the details of what happened at Pyote (and at many other sites around the west) as the Army Air Force expanded. It includes everything from the problems of inspecting the local restaurants for sanitation, to disposing of the thousands of rattlesnakes upset by the building of the base, to finally todays state of abandonded concrete and a historical market.

It's a fascinating story.

Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Peyote Army Airfield In World War II by Thomas E. Alexander (a commissioner with the Texas Historical Commission) is the story of a major military bomber airfield that was established in a remote corner of West Texas in 1942. The base was nicknamed after the western diamondback rattlesnake because of their massive presence during the construction of the Peyote Army Airfield. Eventual the airfield expanded to include nearly three thousand acres of Texas. Rattlesnake Bomber Base is the story of this World War II microcosm that is fairly representative of what was happening to suddenly established and burgeoning military bases all over the country as a result of the pressures, needs, and demands of America's participation on the battlefields of the world. A very strongly recommended addition to World War II Military History library collections and supplemental studies lists, readers will encounter colorful characters and gain informed insights into how such feats as the establishment and maintenance of an American-based bomber facility and training ground was achieved.

This book I received about the rattlesnake air base during ww2 was very interinsting. Also the book on history of Winkler County was as good as the airbase book, bothwere shiped when I was told they would be.

My uncle was the Dr. Charles TenHouten mentioned in the book. It showed a side of him I never knew. He married my aunt while they were there. Now I am wondering why she was in Pyote. I remember some mention of her being in the Red Cross. I also have a menu from thanksgiving on the Base during the war.