1942-1963
EXTRACTED FROM
"HISTORY OF AIR TRAINING COMMAND"
1943-1993
OFFICE OF HISTORY AND RESEARCH
HEADQUARTERS, AIR EDUCATION AND TRAINING COMMAND
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, TEXAS
1993
OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL
A final responsibility of the Technical Training Command that should be mentioned was basic military training for non rated officers. They were needed to relieve flying officers of their non-flying duties during the wartime expansion of the Air Corps and the Army Air Forces. To provide this training, on 17 February 1942, General Arnold directed the Technical Training Command to establish an Officer Candidate School (OCS)
General Weaver located it at Miami Beach, where it activated on 21 February 1942 and continued to operate until June 1944, when it moved to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center at the site of what later became Lackland Air Force Base. In June 1945 the Officer Candidate School again transferred to Maxwell Field, Alabama.
The Officer Candidate School began as a 12 weeks course, but it expanded to 16 weeks in 1943. It also began as a uniform program for all officer candidates, but after 1943 the last phase of training was divided into specialized training for adjutants and personnel officers, as well as supply, mess, intelligence, guard-company, and training officers. Later, it expanded to include physical training and technical officers as well. Then, in October 1944 as enrollment declined, the school dropped the specialized training altogether. Through the end of the war, the school graduated a total of 29,106 officers.
PROLOGUE
These graduates had entered the school from a variety of backgrounds. Some were war-rant officers or enlisted men who met the standards for admission to officer training. These sources were not adequate to meet all of the needs of the Army air arm, however, so it commissioned some individuals with special qualifications directly from civilian life. These people required some military training, so Technical Training Command also set up an Officer Training School (OTS) at Miami Beach to provide six weeks of military instruction. It became an integral but separate part of OCS in June 1942.
Most OTS students were 30 years old or more, with the bulk of them in their 30's or 40's They came from all walks of life, but most were teachers, businessmen, or professionals. The majority were slated for administrative or instructional duties in the Army Air Forces, but others were intended to be ferry pilots. Beginning in the winter of 1942, Medical, Dental, and Sanitary Corps officers also attended Officer Training School in courses separate from those for other officers. On 26 June 1943, OTS terminated its activities, but by that date it had trained a total of 13,898 students, of whom 13,284 graduated.
The Miami Beach Officer Training Center was headquartered in a modern hotel building, but training took place in temporary classrooms that resembled chicken coops
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History and Heritage
