California State Military
Department
In late 1945 Japanese aliens from the alien in ternment camps being returned to Japan by the Immigrations and Naturalization Service (INS) were housed here while awaiting transportation to Japan
SAAAB continued as a redistribution and separation center for a short time after the war. On March 31, 1946, the base was ofically deactivated. However, in 1956 elements of the 551st Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion brought the Nike-Hercules system from Fort Bliss and temprarily installed and operated it at the old SAAAB site until their permanent installations (Site LA-88) in Chatsworth and atop Oak Mountain were completed.
In 1958 the base was declared surplus and soon afterwards the land was divided for many uses. In the postwar years private homes, apartments, two colleges, the Costa Mesa Air National Guard Station and the Orange County Fairground shared the land. Many of the base's original buildings remained in use for years by the colleges and the fair grounds.
Statistics
| Offical Ground Breaking | October 23. 1941 |
| Activation Date | February 23,1942 |
| Deactivation Date | March 31,1946 |
| Size of Base | 1,336.685 Acres |
| Location of Base | Main entrance at Newport Boulevard; Baker Street on the north, Harbor Blvd. on the west, Wilson Street on the south, Newport Blvd. on the east |
| Buildings | Approximately 800 (including 1,357,120 sq ft of barracks) 28 Convalescent Hospital Wards, 18 School Buildings, 155,000 sq ft of Administration buildings, 4 Chapels, 4 Theaters |
| Utilities | Water system adequate for 40,000 people with 33 miles of water main lines, 28 miles of sewer lines |
| Maximum Number of Personnel | 26,000 Army Air Forces personnel, (excluding civilian personnel) |
| Primary Functions |
|
The Base, called an Air Corps Cadet Replacement Training Center, later renamed the Santa Ana Army Air Base, was planned to accommodate 2,500 to 3,000 cadets, 83 officers and 806 enlisted men, and to cost about $3,200,000 to construct.
The Base would not have a flying field as a part of its facilities. It would receive air cadets from civilian life and give them basic training prior to their advancement to one of the contract primary aviation schools for flight training. Arrangements were also made for a Special hangar at the Orange County Airport to accommodate officers' planes.
The master plan called for the construction of 145 buildings that would include: 79 barracks, 3 warehouses, quartermaster supply office, 4 school buildings, 10 administration buildings, 13 day rooms, 13 supply rooms, 4 cadet messes, 2 officers' quarters, a motor repair shop, post office, gasoline service station, utility buildings, theater, 2 recreation buildings, commissary buildings, chapels, dispatchers' office, officers' mess, fire station, guard house, two post exchanges, and a 151-bed hospital and all utilities. This would amount to a new city in the middle of bean and tomato fields.
Meanwhile in the middle of all these preparations, on June 20, 1941 Army Regulation 95-5 changed the name of the Air Corps to the Army Air Forces.
The Orange County Airport was also selected as the site for the Headquarters Squadron originally located at Moffett Field. As a result, a dozen or more aircraft were located at Orange County Airport to serve as a sort of "taxi service" for the Army Air Force officials to permit them to contact various points of flying activity along the West Coast. Plans were also made to move the entire Army Air Force administrative offices at Moffett Field to the Santa Ana area.
To provide the basic staff for the SAAAB at Santa Ana, two squadrons, the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron (Special) and the 554th School Squadron, were activated at Moffett Field on August 1, 1941. These two squadrons became the nucleus from which the SAAAB cadre would grow.
The construction contract for the 177 buildings at SAAAB was awarded to the Griffith Company on October 24, 1941 for $2 million. The work was to be completed in 120 calendar days.
New plans required that the SAAAB accommodate the training of 10,000 cadets per year.
The SAAAB was to be the starting point of the cadet's 35-week training course. During the first five weeks spent at the SAAAB the cadet would receive his uniforms, regulations and initial instruction in drill, military courtesy and other basic training. Upon leaving the SAAAB he would be assigned to a school for ten weeks of primary flight instruction, then on to a school for ten weeks of basic flight instruction and finally to an advanced flying field for 10 weeks. At the end of his 35 weeks of training the cadet was to be commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces.
The first Commander of the Aviation Cadet Replacement Training Center at Santa Ana or later (SAAAB) was Major William A. Robertson who arrived on October 10, 1941. He was promoted to Colonel on March 1, 1941.
As a direct result of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the number of pilots to be trained was increased three-fold to 102,000. This new number placed pressure on the SAAAB to increase its facilities and as a result 924 acres were acquired by the U.S. Government next to the present site for the addition of barracks and other buildings.
On May 13, 1942 the Air Base officially became known as the Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) by General Order No. 19.
In March 1942 the Army established separate classification centers for aircrew candidates. These were established near the preflight schools. The West Coast center was located at the SAAAB on June 15, 1942. Separate buildings were constructed for this center. The centers function was two-fold - to serve as a processing and classifying center and to create a reserve pool of classified students. At the centers, thousands of civilians came into the Army for aviation cadet training to receive a physical examination, inoculations and be quarantined for several weeks. During this period, cadets received uniforms, equipment, and indoctrination into the ways of military life. They were also tested and classified for aircrew training either as a pilot, navigator or bombardier. The typical cadet spent his first three weeks in the classification center. These three new centers replaced some of the earlier functions of the SAAAB and thus allowed more attention for the three training schools.
On October 30, 1942 the Santa Ana Branch School of Aviation Medicine was established at the SAAAB hospital to provide practical training for officers of the Medical Corps.
On June 11, 1942 General Order No. 11 changed the old Aviation Cadet structure to three Army Air Forces units. These were an Air Force Classification Center, an Army Air Forces Preflight School for Pilots and an Army Air Forces School for Bombardiers-Navigator.
The first class of 2,601 cadets graduated on July 1, 1942. By the end of 1942 the annual rate of graduates from the Pilot School was over 45,000. To carry out this program, the Air Force had recruited a faculty of over 250 well-trained and experienced high school, college and university teachers who later became officers in the Air Corps.
The Sunday review was the only regular ceremony. The "E" flag was awarded to the squadron that excelled in marching and good conduct.
The Base Newspaper was begun July 2, 1942 and dubbed The Cadet. It was published by the Cadet Press of Anaheim, which also published the weekly Anaheim Gazette.
In March 1943 the Women's Army Corps (WAC) was established at SAAAB. Special barracks were constructed for them on the edge of the property.
The proficiency level of the cadets was improved by the introduction of the College Training Program in January 1943. By the end of 1943, some 41,216 college students had been sent to the SAAAB.
The Base reached its maximum strength by the fall of 1943, with a population of some 26,000 servicemen.
The SAAAB graduated 23,479 cadets in 1942 and 57,895 in 1943. In September 1943, the SAAAB began to train Chinese Air Force officers. In September 1943 the SAAAB hospital was authorized to serve as one of seven convalescent centers in the Army Air Forces. The mission of the convalescent center was to provide medical service and rehabilitation for all Army Air Forces personnel transferred from General Hospitals and other sources.
The hospital convalescent patients published their own newspaper called the Wardbird.
Preflight training at the SAAAB peaked in the latter part of 1943. Pilot class 44D, the largest, completed training in October 1943. By then, the Army Air Forces had enough aircrews for the foreseeable future.
On May 31, 1944 aircrew classification ceased at the SAAAB, only about two years since a began. The Pilot School closed on May 22, 1944. It had received 73,923 cadets and graduated 70,464 for flying schools. By the end of 1944 most pilot training schools were being closed by the Army Air Forces.
On November 1, 1944 the SAAAB was turned over to the Army Air Forces Personnel Distribution Command with General Arthur E. Easterbrook in command. At the time it had 800 buildings on the Base. Most of the remaining cadets were sent to San Antonio, Texas. From its inception until this transfer the SAAAB Classification Center had received 149, 425 men. Of that total, 82,252 were classified as pilots, 21, 842 as bombardiers and 14,230 as navigators. Classification eliminated 28,388 to ground crew and 188 to radio operator school. At its close 2,525 remained unclassified.
Convalescent Hospital activities were increased.
A new base newspaper published in magazine size and called the Crossroads, became a replacement for The Cadet.
In July 1945, 563 German prisoners-of-war from the Garden Grove POW Camp were assigned to the SAAAB.
May 7, 1945 V-E day was the close of the fighting in Europe. Suddenly SAAAB's role changed 180 degrees and it worked around the clock to become a separation center. By November 1945 81,000 combat veterans had been returned to private life.
Finally on March 13, 1946 the Army deactivated the SAAAB. On May 4, 1946 the title to the SAAAB passed from the Army to the War Assets Administration. In the ensuing years some of the buildings on the base were sold and moved piecemeal, others became part of colleges. In 1953 the City of Costa Mesa was incorporated. In June 1955, the former SAAAB property was annexed to the City. For a period of time in the mid-1950s a portion of the Base served as a Nike guided missile training base. The three-battery missile compound had been made operational in January 1956. Two years later, in June 1958, the Air National Guard received a five-acre parcel of land and the remaining 260 acres, including the five-acre air base water facility, was declared surplus and turned over to the GSA. On June 29, 1979, a plaque was dedicated to "all pilots, bombardiers and navigators who trained here that contributed to an early victory in World War II". This plaque was placed on the Air National Guard base, which is the last active duty post on the original location of the SAAAB.
The SAAAB property eventually became the center of the City of Costa Mesa.
built to serve 20,000 personnel. Finally, before it closed in March 1946, it was a discharge station for soldiers returning from the Pacific.
(1335.685 acres) was passed from the Army to the War Assets Administration (W.A.A.). The former site was sold to various entities Orange Coast College, 32nd Agricultural & Southern California Bible College. The site currently consists of many residential and retail tracts with approximately 2,800 owners.
Guard Station and several residential and retail tracts. Some of the original buildings were renovated and are being used by the present owners. The seven tanks are concentrated in a 5 acre area of land owned by the College. The lease was terminated when the fee land was conveyed to the College.
