Brief History of Perrin

Perrin Air force base began as an Army Air Field and was the first, basic flying training school to become operational after the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor, on December 7th, 1941.

In the spring of 1941 Grayson county leaders began to discuss the possibilities of a US Army Air Corps basic flying school to be built in Grayson County, with the cooperation of the US Army Air corps expansion program. In March 1941 Grayson County Judge, Jake J. Loy of Sherman went to Washington DC to further the project idea. After his visit to Washington DC, Judge Loy returned to Sherman and began to work on the project with County commissioners. A tract of land was selected that was suitable for a flying field.

In early April 1941, Major CR. Storrie, A.C. Assistant Director of Training for the Air Corps schools, flew to Sherman from Randolph Field, Texas, to look over the site with county officials. On April 16th, 1941, Judge Loy sent a report to Major Storrie that included real estate, meteorological, and agriculture data, along with information about Sherman and Denison, highway maps, and a resolution showing the commitments that the county was prepared to assume.
On May 9, 1941, a board of Air Corps officers convened at the site of the proposed airfield. A report was then prepared and sent to the Chief of the Air Corps in Washington DC. The report's findings were that the site was suitable and desirable as a basic flying school and recommended that the land be leased and construction be authorized. Commitments by Grayson County were also enclosed which disclosed the furnishing of railroad right of ways, removal of surrounding obstructions for flying take offs and landings, digging of water wells, provisions for electric power, gas and telephone utilities, and highway facilities to the boundary of the proposed airfield. The lease called for payment by the United States Government of $1.00 a year to be renewed each year for 25 years. On June 10th, 1941 voters of Grayson County approved a $60,000.00 bond to purchase 1160-

Acres to be leased to the U.S. government. On June 16, 1941, the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps in Washington, D.C. drew up a program for construction. A tentative authorized strength of 199 officers, 422 cadets, 1730 enlisted men, and funds in the amount of $3,966,833.00 were ordered and set aside for the construction of the airfield. The lease was signed by the United States Government and by Grayson County on July 1st, 1941, and that same week the Army Corps of Engineers started construction on the newly established Grayson Basic Flying school.

On August 9, 1941, Major Robert J Warren was the first person to report to duty at the partially constructed airfield. He assumed the duties as project officer and temporary Commanding officer. Ten days later, five enlisted men arrived from Angelo, TX) to assist Major Warren in the development of the airstrip, hangars, barracks, and field headquarters building. The field was knee deep in mud, buildings half erected, and piles of lumber everywhere. Construction crews were busy at work as well. On August 21st 1941, the first aircraft, a BT-14, and Army Air Force personnel arrived at the newly constructed Grayson Basic Flying School. Personnel continued to arrive during September and October, and by mid October ten officers had been assigned to the airfield, including a director of training, a signal officer, flight surgeon, post surgeon, dental surgeon, and three quartermaster officers. Quarters were not yet available for these early arrivals so they lived in near by Sherman and Denison, driving to the base on the new, muddy, unpaved roads.

Boxcar loads of supplies arrived at a nearby railroad station in Pottsboro, Texas. Officers, Sergeants, and privates all rolled up their sleeves and loaded the boxes and other supplies onto the Army trucks heading for the airfield. As more military personnel arrived at the airfield, they found that mess tables, packing crates, typewriter boxes, and nail kegs served as office furniture. The first Civilian employees arrived at the airfield on November 3, 1941 that included a secretary for the commanding officer and two telephone operators. A total of 17 officers and 6 enlisted men had been assigned to the base. On November 8, 1941, twenty-four more officers arrived at the base. Four days later three cooks arrived to the base to begin preparations of the general mess hall for the arrival of 180 enlisted men from the 85th Air Base Group, Goodfellow Field, scheduled for November 14. On November 12, 1941, Lt. Colonel Donald G. Stitt was assigned to the airfield and assumed command on November 19, 1941. Major Warren stayed on as project officer. Lt. Colonel Stitt was, in effect, the first commander of the field. The finance department was activated on November 27, 1941, utilizing the barracks as field headquarters. Four days later they handled the first payroll, making payments directly to the enlisted men. On November 28, three BT-13 aircraft arrived with pilot instructors. Men started arriving for aircraft maintenance, training, medical services, weather and communications, food service and quartermaster duties.

By December the hospital building, officers quarters and club, warehouses, general mess, operations building, runways, sewage disposal plant, various administrative buildings, cadet mess, and fourteen cadet barracks, were in a usable state. Post headquarters, and hangars were still under construction. Roads were half paved, and the water tower had just been completed.

On December 2, 1941, 300 men came to Perrin with the transfer of the 508th, 509th, 510th and 511th school squadrons for aircraft maintenance, training, medical, weather, and communications detachments, all from Goodfellow Field. In the next few days, smaller groups arrived, including a quartermaster detachment. The Medical Department was activated on December 4, 1941.

By early December 7, 1941, the strength of the airfield stood at 90 officers and 545 enlisted men. The first class of cadets were expected by the end of December. However, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, training programs were immediately sped up, and the cadets were to arrive within two weeks. The first class of eighty-one cadets arrived on December 16, 1941, from Corsicana Texas, and the first dance at the base was held on December 19. On December 22, their formal program of instruction began. On February 20, 1942, the first fatal crash occurred at Perrin, taking the lives of instructor Cyril T. Van Valkenburg and student, Quinto O. Perkins. In spite of the difficulties with training facilities and the ongoing construction, the pioneering class of cadets graduated on schedule, February 23, 1942, and left Perrin for advanced flight training. This was also the occasion for the official dedication of this new basic flying school. Perrin Field had been named in January 1942, in memory of the late Lt. Col. Elmer D Perrin, a native Texan, who had been killed in a plane crash on June 21, 1941, during an acceptance test of a bomber near the Glenn L Martin aircraft plant in Baltimore, Maryland.

Less than 6 months after the initial construction had started, Perrin's population was over 2500, with over 135 structures completed, including three control towers, two hangars, and miles of concrete runways. A continuing stream of officers and enlisted men arrived at Perrin with the strength leaping from 600 to over 4000 by December 1942. The abnormal strength of the base was due to special training programs at Perrin, such as basic training for aircrew trainees and recruits, and activation of new squadrons to be sent to newly established flying training schools around the country. In August 1942, Perrin sent 5 newly activated squadrons to the newly established Majors Field in nearby Greenville, Texas, and in December 1942, Perrin sent ten squadrons to the basic flying school in Independence, Kansas. Perrin also sent out recruiting teams all over north Texas and southern Oklahoma, to enlist technicians, who would attend basic training at Perrin and then be assigned duty there.

The strength dropped to normal in early 1943 to about 2500 enlisted men and 300 officers. Buses ran hourly from the base to nearby cities, Sherman and Denison, and the MKT. Railroad furnished rail transportation from nearby Pottsboro, Texas. Training aircraft used at Perrin Field included approximately 250 BT-13's and AT-6's, with approximately 550 maintenance personnel working 24 hours shifts. Pilot cadet classes numbered between 300 and 400 students. The field started adjusting itself to the vast expansion necessitated by the country's entrance into W.W.II. Perrin Field was initially assigned to the Central flying training command. Perrin Field was upgraded from a secondary school to primary classification. This eliminated the need for an advanced training school. When a cadet graduated from Perrin, he was immediately commissioned. In July 1943, Perrin Field was reassigned to the newly established Training Command with its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Perrin Field hosted the 32nd Flying Training Wing from September 1943, to October 1945. Perrin Field trained approximately 2500 basic pilot students annually during W.W.II, graduating over 10,000 student pilots, including cadets from Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Philippines and Ecuador. The airfield also had a branch prisoner of war camp holding about 200 German POWs. POST W.W.II in February 1946, basic pilot training was discontinued at the base.

An instructor school was established to maintain instructor proficiency, and to provide refresher training for oversea returnees and behind-the-line pilots, but the base was deactivated in November 1946. Perrin became a storage facility for aircraft such as the AT-6 and B-25, and other equipment such as tractors and bulldozers. The only operational aircraft was the C-47. On April 1, 1948, Perrin Field was reactivated under the newly established United States Air Force, and was renamed Perrin Air Force Base. Perrin hosted the 3555th Basic Pilot Training Wing from August 1948 to June 1952. It resumed its mission of basic single engine pilot training under the Air Training Command and continued until December 1951. From July 1949 to March 1950, pilot students at Perrin flew 8,692 miles (more than 347 times around the earth). The aircraft were airborne for approximately 57,952 hours. In 1951 pilot students flew 12,972.000 miles spending 86,000 hours in the air. (Equal to 510 times around the earth) This record was set despite poor weather conditions, and all classes graduated on schedule. Beginning in January 1952, Perrin began advanced single engine pilot training, flying the T-28 Trojan. This training ended in December 1952. In March 1952, B-26 medium bomber training was transferred and conducted at Perrin.

Beginning in 1951 Allied National students began pilot training at Perrin, which continued until 1962. On July 17, 1952, Perrin was designated a permanent Air Force installation and the name was officially changed to Perrin Air Force Base. Perrin was also transformed to the Crew Training Air Force, which involved the
training of the new, all-weather interceptor jets. Larger 8000 and 9000 foot runways were built and the T-33 (T-Bird) and F-86D (Sabre Dog) jets arrived at Perrin in December 1952. During the 1950's to the early 1960's Perrin hosted the 3555th Flying-Training Wing (fighter [June 1952 to September 1954]). The 3555th Combat Crew Training Wing (advanced interceptor [September 1954 to August 1958]), and the 3555th Flying-Training Wing (advanced interceptor [August 1958 to July 1962]). In July 1957, Perrin was assigned to the Flying Training Air Force and in 1958 was placed directly under the Air Training Command. Under the 3555th there were two squadrons, the 3556th and the 3558th. In November 1961, Air Force One arrived at Perrin carrying President John F Kennedy. President Kennedy was to attend the funeral of the late Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, in nearby Bonham, Texas, to the East of Sherman. President Kennedy traveled by helicopter to Bonham. Past Presidents, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson also arrived along with most of Congress, and the Supreme Court. Texas highway patrolmen escorted these visitors to Bonham.

In July 1962 Perrin was transferred to the Air Defense Command, and the 4780th Air Defense Training Wing absorbed the 3555th Training Wing. A new jet arrived, the F102 Delta (Dagger) wing. From 1962 to 1971 Perrin had the largest fleet of F102's in the US Air Force. Perrin AFB became the only F102 training base within the Air Defense Command. The 4780th trained already jet-qualified pilots to operate interceptor-type aircraft as combat weapons. Perrin graduates of the F-102 were assigned to active duty units or went on for further instruction in the F-101, F-106 or B-58 operations. In October 1962 during the Cuban missile crises a number of Perrin pilots and aircraft went on special alert, some flying missions to Florida. Under the 4780th there were two flying squadrons, the 4781st and 4782nd CCTS. The 4780th was under the command jurisdiction of 14th Air Force, 73rd Air Division until April 1966. In July 1968, the 10th Air Force assumed command control of the 4780th. In 1964 the 4780th Air Defense Wing was chosen to host the Air Defense Command Life Support School at the nearby Lake Texoma. The school was initiated to give life support and ejection training to aircrews flying ADC aircraft and to Air National Guard units that supported the ADC mission. Prior to the school's establishment, the ADC had a twenty-two percent fatality rate, but after the first year it fell to five percent.

The school trained and graduated over 11,000 aircrew members including forty-nine United States astronauts. Perrin utilized the HH-43B helicopters for rescue and fire fighting. In July, 1968, seventeen United States astronauts, including Allan Sheppard, Neal Armstrong, David Scott, James McDivott, Charles Conrad, L. Gordon Cooper, Richard F Gordon, William Andrews, Frank Borman, James Lovell, Harrison Schmidt, Joseph Algranti, Jerry Cobb, Harold Ream, Kenneth Thompson, Robert Leet, and John Proban arrived at Perrin AFB, to attend a two-day survival training school at the PAFB support school at nearby Lake Texoma. In April 1967 Perrin assumed the added training mission with the activation of the 3251st Flying Training Wing that trained already qualified pilots as instructors in the Air Training Commands undergraduate pilot program, flying the T-37 (Tweetie bird).

In 1969 the 4780th won many honors for their accomplishments, which included three outstanding unit awards and the United States Air Force Flying Safety Plaque for flying 38,551 hours without a major accident. Since its inception, pilots from Perrin trained in the BT-14, BT-13A, AT-6, T-28 trainers, B-25, B-26 bomber, T-33 & T-37 jet trainers, F-86D & F-86L Sabre jets and F102 & TF102 delta wing jet. Pilots trained at Perrin served in W.W.II, Korea, and the Vietnam wars. Perrin trained dozens of aces and forty-nine United States astronauts. On March 3, 1971, it was announced that Perrin would close. On May 13, 1971, the last graduating class flew its F102's in formation over Sherman and Denison as a farewell to its two host cities. A few days later the last of the F-102 Delta Daggers left the base, and the 4780th Air Defense Wing was deactivated. For thirty years Perrin trained pilots, who participated in three wars: The closing of Perrin on June 30, 1971, was due mainly to the change of the pilot training requirements and the crowded airways from the opening of the new Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The base that then consisted of over 1875 acres was given to the Grayson County Community College and to the County of Grayson. The name of the field was changed to Grayson County Airport and is home to a small industrial park and civilian flight operations.

Since the base's closure, a small group of local Sherman and Denison citizens have held the memory of Perrin together, hosting nine Perrin Field reunions since the early 1980's. The Perrin AFB Research Foundation was established in 1998.