March 12, 1946

The War Department renamed the Army Air Forces School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery to Air University. First established as the Air Service School at Langley Field in Virginia, the War Department moved the school’s headquarters to Montgomery in 1928 at the urging of Alabama U.S. Rep. J. Lister Hill. The university serves as the U.S. Air Force’s institution of higher learning and provides education in military subjects and doctrine to select members of all U.S. military services and air forces of other countries. The university graduates more than 196,000 students annually through courses and programs varying in length from one week to one year.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, a native of Atmore, for whom Maxwell Air Force Base is named. (U.S. Army, Wikimedia)

Brochure featuring Maxwell Field in Montgomery; the location of the Southeast Army Air Forces (SEAAF) Training Center, 1943. (Mike Voisin, Army Air Forces Collection, U.S. Army Air Forces, Wikimedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.