Historic Midland

They looked at each other and laughed. One
said, “Odessa is cleaning house, out by 8 o’clock
or down to the jail!”
The scouts knew and had come over to see
the exodus. People were everywhere carrying
maps, talking oil.
They found oil and gas. A glance at a map of
the Permian Basin today with the fields painted
in the various colors symbolizing the geological
age of the production will show how intense
and efficient was their work.
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Opposite, middle: Employees of Baker
Oil Company stand outside the
facility, which offered Cosden
products.
Opposite, bottom: Lamb’s One-Stop
Chevron Gas Station offered
convenient gasoline service to
Midlanders during the early years
of motoring.
Bombardier School Found
Character of Midland
By Ed Todd
The community’s newspaper in 1942 fervently
expressed the patriotic citizens’ sentiment:
“Welcome Army Air Corps to Midland’s Sloan
Field.” Those were the “great days,” when
Midland united with the nation in the tempestuous
days of World War II.
Midland’s old Sloan Field gave way to
Midland Army Air Field (MAAF), site of the
“world’s greatest bombardier college” and home
of the “Hell-from-Heaven Men.”
All told, more than 6,600 MAAF bombardier
cadets dropped 1.2 million practice bombs from
twin-engine Beechcraft AT-11 aircraft, armed
with Norden bombsights, over targets etched in
the West Texas plains.
In West Texas, there is “better flying weather
than anywhere else in the country and relatively
mild climate, too,” said World War II naval aviator
Jack Edwards. “Forced landings were a helluva
lot easier to get away with in this country than
anywhere else.” There was a “lot of open area for
bomb targets…and for strafing ranges.”
Even before America was catapulted into the
century’s second “great” war by the Japanese air
attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7,
1941, America was gearing up for war.
Roosevelt had appealed to the nation to
become “the arsenal of democracy” by producing
war materiel to equip the Allied nations battling
the Axis powers with ships, tank, aircraft,
and munitions.
Fueled by the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941,
America’s industrial might flourished.
On the home front in 1940-42, the War
Department was searching for optimum sites to
put in more Army camps and air fields for training
the Army Air Forces (AAF). The Department
of the Navy was also establishing and expanding
naval air stations.
The Southwest was an ideal environment for
flight and bombardier training. West Texas
became an AAF mecca! “Midland Army Air Field
is one of the pioneers in the business of training
men capable of blasting the Axis off the map,”
noted an MAAF “Hell-From-Heaven” yearbook.
The school’s first class of the “Hell-From-Heaven
Men” was graduated on April 30, 1942.
AAF Colonel Isaiah Davies, later brigadier
general, was the MAAF’s first commander.
Convincing the AAF Training Command to
locate a unit in Midland, however, demanded
dedication and tenacity.
“Those were great days,” Collyns recalled.
“Midland was up and going, pushing ahead, and
I (as chamber manager) had all the support in
the world. It wasn’t tough being manager of the
chamber when you had that support with you.”
Among the supporters were Mayor Marvin C.
Ulmer and Councilmen Ralph Barron, Tom
Sealy, Barney Greathouse, Paul McHargue, and
D.H. Roettger. Chamber of Commerce leadership
included President Jim Allison, then publisher
of the town’s newspaper the Midland
Reporter-Telegram, and past president John
House and McHargue.
The community’s spirit said “‘We ain’t going
to quit,’” Collyns recalled. “We stayed right in
there. We’re going to keep trying.” And Midland
ended up with the “number-one bombardier
school in the country.” Collyns, who had a lone
secretary then, hired a housing clerk, which
Left: At Midland Army Air Field
young airmen looking over a
newspaper heralding the end of the
war in Europe during World War II.
Discovery of Oil Made Midland | 53