Bryan Air Force Base

{{Short description|Former US military air field near Bryan, Texas}}

{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox military installation

| name=Bryan Air Force Base
{{smaller|Bryan Army Airfield}}

| ensign=50px

| partof=Air Training Command (ATC)

| location= Brazos County, near Bryan, Texas

| image= Bryan Air Force Base TX 2006 USGS.jpg

| image_size = 300px

| caption= 2006 USGS Airphoto

| pushpin_map= Texas

| pushpin_label=Bryan AFB

| pushpin_mark=Airplane_silhouette.svg

| pushpin_mapsize=300

| coordinates= {{Coord|30|38|16|N|96|28|43|W|type:airport|display=inline,title}}

| type=Air Force Base

| code=

| height=

| ownership=

| controlledby=

| condition=

| built=1942

| builder=

| used= 1942–1947; 1951–1958; 1960–1961

| materials=

| demolished=

| battles=

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}}

Bryan Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base in Brazos County, Texas, located west of Bryan.

Bryan Air Force Base was originally activated in 1943 as a U.S. Army Air Forces installation known as Bryan Army Air Field. The base housed a flight instructors' school and was assigned the task of developing a standardized system of instrument flight training. The Full Panel Attitude System developed at the base was one of the most significant contributions the base made to pilot training. The instrument training school at Bryan AAF was the only one of its kind in the United States Army Air Forces.{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbb06|title = TSHA | Bryan Air Force Base}}

With the end of World War II (WWII), the base was inactivated. The installation became Bryan Air Force Base upon the establishment of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as a separate service in September 1947.

Following WWII, enrollment at the nearby Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (later renamed Texas A&M University) soared due to the G.I. Bill. Housing was in short supply, so between 1946 and 1950, an estimated 5,500 students lived, studied, ate, and attended classes at what became known as the Annex, located in buildings the USAF was not using. Former students lived and studied in cramped, cheaply built and already-dilapidated WWII buildings without heating, air conditioning or indoor plumbing, and described having to hitchhike to and from the remote site if they did not have their own cars.{{cite news|last=Gillentine |first=Kristy |title=Aggies recall days at Annex |newspaper=The Bryan-College Station Eagle |date=March 11, 2007 |url=http://theeagle.com/stories/031107/am_20070311019.php |access-date=2008-06-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181709/http://theeagle.com/stories/031107/am_20070311019.php |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}

In 1951, with the outbreak of the Korean War, the base was reactivated for USAF pilot training and the runways were extended. Assigned to the Air Training Command, it conducted advanced flight training in the T-33 Shooting Star.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} In 1955, after combat in Korea had wound down, the USAF began reducing operations at the base, and in 1957, it announced that the base would be inactivated again in 1958.{{cite web |url=http://rellisrecollections.org/bryan_air_force_base.html |title=Bryan Air Force Base |website=rellisrecollections.org |access-date=August 21, 2024}} The USAF fully vacated the base in May 1961.{{cite web|url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bryan-air-force-base |title=Bryan Air Force Base |last=Leatherwood |first=Art |date=November 1, 1994 |access-date=August 21, 2024 }}{{cite web |url=http://rellisrecollections.org/bryan_air_force_base.html |title=Bryan Air Force Base |website=rellisrecollections.org |access-date=August 21, 2024}}

In 1962, the land and buildings were leased for twenty years to Texas A&M under an arrangement that allowed the General Services Administration to reclaim the base in the event of a national emergency, but with the eventual "purchase price" of the facility being reduced by five percent each year of the lease.{{Cite web|url=http://rellisrecollections.org/research_annex.html |title = Research Annex |website=rellisrecollections.org |access-date=August 22, 2024}} Texas A&M continued to renew the lease, and in 1988, full ownership of the former base was transferred to Texas A&M at virtually no cost.{{Failed verification|date=August 2024|reason=Cited source says nothing about the facility being formally transferred in 1988.}} The site is now home to A&M's RELLIS campus.