Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1942: The “suddenly announced glider training school for Clovis” was preparing to receive the first of 67 planes to be used in training, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
About 200 personnel, including fliers, Army officers, doctors, nurses and an ambulance unit were expected to be in Clovis by the weekend.
“Hurried plans were under way today for the immediate leasing of three if not more tracts of prairie land near this city as auxiliary landing spots of the planes,” the newspaper reported. “Housing of the men and other details of new facilities at the (municipal airport) were under consideration today.”
Training involved pilots reaching 500 to 5,000 feet, cutting the motor, and gliding planes to specific landing locations, officials said. Training was scheduled to begin June 1.
“The specific aim of the training is to equip men to participate in commando raids,” the newspaper reported.
The glider training school would close after World War II, but its success became the inspiration for Cannon Air Force Base.
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