Donaldson Air Force Base

The 334th was inactivated on 1 May 1944 with personnel and equipment being reassigned to the 330th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit/Medium Bombardment).The 56th Combat Training Wing became the overall commanding unit at Greenville AAB on 1 May 1945, being reassigned from Morris Field, North Carolina which was closed.With its training completed, the group went overseas, transferring to Médiouna Airfield, in French Morocco with the Twelfth Air Force.Greenville AFB remained an administrative facility for several years, maintaining aircraft and providing training to these Air Force Reserve units.The theater troop carrier mission was expanded rapidly during the Korean War when many of these reserve units were elevated to active service and assigned directly to HQ TAC.HQ TAC ordered the 315th Troop Carrier Group to deploy from Greenville AFB to Brady Air Base, Japan with C-46 Commando transports.After a period of intensive training, the C-82s of the 375th participated in troop carrier and airlift operations, paratroop drops, and other exercises until being returned to the reserves in July 1952.Between 20 February and 11 April 1952, the unit operated on temporary duty from Brownwood Municipal Airport, performing paratroop drops and other exercises in support of Army maneuvers.Its attached units consisted of: The 63d TCW participated in maneuvers, exercises and the airlift of personnel and cargo to many points throughout the world, it helped evacuate Hungarian refugees, supported the construction of the eastern mission test range, and the Distant Early Warning Line sites in the Arctic.Throughout the mid-1950s, Donaldson Air Force Base supported USAF troop carrier participation in joint operations training.Additional endeavors were implemented to improve communications capabilities and to include AF medical air evacuation in joint exercises.Large hangars and expansive ramps were constructed to support these sizeable machines; the base became known as the "Troop Carrier Capital of the World".C-124s, some from the 63d TCW at Donaldson, transported F-104 Starfighter aircraft from Hamilton AFB, California along with their pilots, ground crews, and maintenance equipment and delivered them intact to Ching Chuan Kang Air Base.Included in these shipments flown in by MATS were such items as communications facilities, maintenance equipment, helicopters, liaison planes, and even complete mess halls.MATS also made emergency trips, flying the 663 nautical miles (1,228 km) from Leopoldville to Stanleyville, and back, to rescue threatened refugees.63d TCW heavy air transports were taking off every fifteen minutes from Don Muang to Udon RTAFB carrying Thai and United States Marines with their equipment some 300 miles (480 km) to the northeast to "show the flag", as well as put an armed force along the Mekong River.In January 1963, the 63d Troop Carrier Wing was transferred to Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia and Donaldson AFB was deactivated for the last time.Among the over 75 tenants of the industrial air park are Lockheed Martin; which services USAF, USN and USMC C-130s and USN P-3s there; Stevens Aviation (a 1950 spinoff of J.P. Stevens Company[6]); 3M; Alan Pittman Race Cars (a fabricator of Pro Modified cars); the Greenville County Sheriff's Office Southern Area Command (SAC) and facilities supporting the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Reserves.[7] Julius N. Capri of Altoona, Pennsylvania was stationed at Greenville Army Air Base in 1944, and placed in charge of its civilian mechanics.