Sioux Falls Army Technical School

Sioux Falls Army Technical School. . In February 1942 civic leaders in Sioux Falls became aware that the city was being considered for a possible defense facility. They indicated that a military installation would revitalize a rater stagnant economy as well as reflecting the city's patriotism. The War Department indicated that a base would be established if the if the city secured options on large tracts of land near the airport. After an all-out effort, legal options for the required 1540 acres were obtained and turned over to the government under lease before April 3, 1942., The next day, the War Department announced that an army radio and communications school, costing more than $15 million, would be established. It would house 500 officers and 14,500 enlisted men. Military's strength at the Sioux Falls Army Technical Training school would almost double during the war. On July 31, 1945, the official count was 27,854 men and women. It is estimated that more than 2000 civilians engaged in a variety of activities at the base. , Construction of the Sioux Falls Army Training School was not complete when the first students began their classes on July 6, 1942. The base was dedicated on August 22, 1942. Barracks were built, according to specifications of a base in the South, and insulation and lack of siding was completely inadequate for South Dakota's harsh winters. Student class work was divided into three components: basic field training an electric and radio fundamentals. The aspiring radio operator - mechanics (ROMs) were trained to communicate in the international Morse Code and to dissemble and reassemble the various parts of a radio. More than 50 percent of all radio operators assigned to B-17 and B - 24 bomber crews were trained in Sioux Falls. Based in England, they flew many missions, often at the extreme cost of life, over Nazi German controlled territory., At the end of March 1945, orders arrived that no new classes would begin at the school until further notice. Under the command of the Second Air Force, the base became a redeployment center for Air Force veterans from Europe being sent to the war in the Pacific. After Japan surrendered, the base became a discharge center on September 17, 1945; it was officially closed on December 31, 1945. The air base brought financial prosperity and social change to Sioux Falls. The city would never again be the semi-isolated, agricultural community it had been before World War II.