Military "alma mater" to more than half a million Air Force soldiers, Keesler Field has, since its activation four years ago, sent thousands of men from its basic training fields and its airplane mechanics and air-sea rescue schools into every corner of the globe where air war plays a vital role in the conquest at the Axis.

Thousands more of its personnel have served at the great AAF Training Command station for varying periods as school instructors and as administrative personnel. In its short but action-crammed history, the field has been a major unit of the Eastern Technical Training Command for its first two years and the Western Technical Training Command for the last two.

It has been the site of important units of the Air Transport Command, and of special installations for the training of bomber pilots, and it has engaged in transitory periods of other special training in behalf of the air war.

Col. T. S. Voss, overseas veteran of a year and a half in the European theater, has been, since May 1, 1945, commanding officer. He is aided in this direction of the field's manifold activities by a staff of competent officers and enlisted personnel, all of them contributing to the smooth operation of one of the nation's biggest air bases.

Located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at Biloxi, deep South resort area over which have flown seven flags, the field might well set itself up as a rival to the adjoining municipality, for, at Keesler, in addition to the stars and stripes, the vivid colors of the flags of France, Brazil and China have waved in the balmy Gulf breezes to denote the presence of elements of their Air Forces in training here.

Thousands of young men who now are carrying devastating aerial warfare to the scattered Pacific bases of the last Axis enemy took their basic training at Keesler Field. Basic training at the station dates back to soon after the post's activation in June, 1941, when a converted golf course and adjacent land, and a single small hangar were the nucleus from which grew the present huge installation.

Now, five massive all-steel hangars dominate the field at its inland side, an extensive series of landing strips accommodates the largest bombers yet to take the skies and amphibians have their choice of land or water upon which to land and take off. School buildings dot the station landscape near the hangars, and most maintenance departments lie nearby. The wide main thoroughfare that marks the border of these structures also marks the beginning of the blocks upon blocks of two-story steam-heated, integrated unit barracks, separated mid-way by half a mile of mess halls.

Basic training at Keesler has led many men into specialized fields, often into training as airplane mechanics, as radio operators and maintenance men, as aviation photographers, and many other duty assignments of high value to the successful prosecution of the nation's aerial war.

The airplane mechanics school also began operation before Pearl Harbor at the close of September, 1941. It was for three years the nation's only B-24 Liberator bomber mechanics' school, and its graduates, trained in a model instructional plant, went on to Europe, Africa, India, the Aleutians and everywhere that Liberators carried death and destruction to the Axis.

During the past year courses have been broadened to afford basic instruction in the subject, which later can be concentrated on the particular type of place with which soldier-students ultimately may work.

Newest of the major activities carried on at Keesler Field is the highly important training conducted in the Air Forces' only Emergency Rescue School. Here, pilots, navigators, mechanics and other technical and administrative personnel are trained for air-sea rescue duty.

These men will go out to the Pacific war areas, where they will fly their missions of mercy to lend quick and thorough aid to army airmen downed at sea in their relentless 'round the clock attacks on Japanese bases. ERS training at Keesler Field, like that of the airplane mechanics school, likewise is on a 'round the clock basis, so important are they to bringing victory closer.

Training for air-sea rescue duty is rigorous and demanding. During 1945 this specialized schooling program has become one of the most important of AAF undertakings.

Because of its huge size, the field has required the maintenance of immense mess facilities, of a great and finely equipped station hospital, dispensaries and dental clinics, of a post laundry big enough and modern enough to serve a large city.

In an installation as large as Keesler Field, recreation must be an important phase of the overall program. The field boasts one of the outstanding athletic programs of the command. Many of its sports teams are unbeaten and most of the remainder are consistent winners--Keesler holds the football, basketball, golf and tennis championships of its area and stands high in baseball and softball. Its records have been amassed against collegiate, professional and military competition.

But it isn't only the topnotch performers who carry the athletic program--competitive sports and games for fun are held daily in every squadron on the field, sometimes in the squadron's own area, often at one of the post diamonds, gridirons, tennis or basketball courts.

There are, too, the more restful recreational pursuits, afforded by three big service clubs, a 15,000-volume library, a score of dayrooms and many squadron recreation halls, and, of course, the post's four moving picture houses and its huge 10,000-capacity outdoor playhouse. An outdoor dancing pavilion, in use most of the year, boating and fishing facilities, swimming in nearby waters of the Gulf and numerous lesser activities also are available, and, dotted about the field, is a chain of post exchanges.

Commanding officer of Keesler Field for three years prior to the accession to command of Col. Voss was Col. Robert E. M. Goolrick, who initiated many of the activities, military and recreational, undertaken at the post. His predecessor and the field's first commanding officer was Col. Arthur L. Brock.