Anyone who has spent time looking at the post-war trail left by the B-17 Flying Fortress knows about Pyote Army Air Field. The remote west Texas base became the primary storage location for a hundred or more new and unused AAF (and later USAF) B-17s in the years between 1946 and 1953. Through those years, the air force came often to Pyote to draw from the inventory those B-17s it needed for several special roles. The story of Pyote AAF is closely tied to the story of the post-war B-17s in USAF service, so we’ll try to dig into it just a bit here.

Pyote, Texas. has always been a long way from everywhere. Even in Texas. Its about 230 miles east of El Paso which is also sort of in the middle of nowhere. Pyote’s nearest city of respectable size is Midland, about 75 miles to the northeast. What recommends Pyote is that it is in the middle of a big oil field and it is flat. So, as American involvement in World War II began, the Army Air Forces built an bomber base there to train B-17 flight crews. It opened in late 1942 as Pyote Army Air Field but became better known as the Rattlesnake Bomber Base. The reason for its name is obvious.

19th Bomb Group Comes to Pyote

Pyote had the typical AAF triangular runway layout. It had a population of military and civilian personnel that approached 8,000 people at its peak. Significant in the history of Pyote was that the famed 19th Bomb Group, after being withdrawn from combat in the southwest Pacific, was assigned to Pyote to train flight crews. The 19th Bomb Group had been in combat from the first day of the war in the Philippines, December 8, 1941, though October 1942. The early, desperate months of war in the Pacific had taken its toll on both men and planes, and as group were beyond worn out. The 19th Bomb Group was withdrawn from combat slowly in the latter part of 1942 and reformed at Pocatello, Idaho, with the assignment of training new combat crews. The group was quickly reassigned to Pyote in January1943 for the same mission. Some of the B-17Es it brought back from the Pacific also made it to Pyote as the initial cadre of aircraft to be used for training, including Suzy-Q (B-17E 41-2489) and Lady Lou (B-17E 41-4286).

Beginning in 1944, Pyote was also used to train B-29 crews. With the end of the war in September 1945, the training mission trickled to a halt.

As the war ended, though, the AAF was left with a big problem. What do you do with thousands of airplanes that are now unneeded? Not only combat veteran airplanes, but brand new airplanes delivered in the confused last months of the war.

Storage of Excess B-17s

For this story, we’ll only look at the situation with B-17s, but it can be multiplied across the whole military aircraft fleet. For those overseas B-17s considered ‘war wearies,’ their final mission was to bring air and ground crew home from overseas. Once they dropped their precious cargo off, they were delivered to storage depots around the country as things got sorted out. One of the biggest storage depots for B-17s was South Plains Army Air Field at Lubbock, Texas. At least hundreds and probably thousands of B-17s ended up being gathered at South Plains in the summer and fall of 1945. Eventually, most of them were deemed excess to military needs and transferred to the government’s Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC) for disposal. The Army released any interest in these B-17s and they went off to places like Kingman, Arizona, and Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, for eventual scrapping.

There were hundreds of new and unused B-17s, however, the last of the production lines at Long Beach and Burbank, that were still in the pipeline. In the last months of the war, these mostly were placed in replacement storage depots and, as the war ended, so they remained. Eventually, the AAF decided a good number of these were also excess to its needs and they were also transferred to the RFC for disposal. However, the AAF had plans for B-17s for its postwar air force. Not as bombers, but the airplanes still had a great deal of utility. In the postwar plan, B-29s, B-17s, B-25s, A-26s, P-47s and P-51s had a place. B-24s, B-26s, and P-38s did not.

Long-Term Bomber Storage

There were dozens of AAF storage fields all around the country. At one point in 1946, the AAF held in storage about 16,000 aircraft. Those storage depots were slowly consolidated as postwar requirements were sorted out. As things shook out, Pyote was designated as a long-term storage facility primarily for B-29s, B-17s, A-26s, and B-25s, though other types were also initially stored there. At least in the beginning, all aircraft were subjected to extensive “cocooning” before placed into storage. Supposedly, cocooning would save on storage costs because, once performed, routine maintenance was much reduced. It was a lengthy and time-consuming process usually performed by contractors. External paint was removed. Any evidence of existing corrosion was first repaired and sensitive equipment removed from the airframe. Fluids were purged from the various systems, and engines run with increasing amounts of oil blended into the gasoline for internal protection. Then, several layers of a plastic protective material was sprayed on the aircraft. Dehydrating crystals were added to the interior. After all this work was completed, the internal humidity of each aircraft was monitored. At least that’s how it started. In later years, the protective plastic material proved to be not that durable. And when it came time to remove the aircraft from storage and peel off the plastic layers, they were difficult to remove and temperature dependent.

As other B-17 storage depots were slowly closed, much of the remaining inventory was moved to Pyote. For example, of the last 1,000 Douglas and Lockheed built B-17Gs delivered between January and August 1945, about 300 of them in new condition ended up in storage at South Plains AAF. Many of these were soon either slated for disposal or activated for use by the AAF. Still, by 1947, there remained nearly 75 new B-17s in storage at South Plains, When the depot was slated for later that summer, most of those still-unused B-17s were readied for one-time flights and ferried down to Pyote (about 180 miles distant) for continued storage.

There were a bunch of B-29s, A-26s, and B-25s that also remained in storage at Pyote as 1948 began. A good number of B-29s were pulled from storage at Pyote for use in the Korean War effort that began in summer of 1950. In addition, redesignated B-26s were also pulled from storage at Pyote and flown to Hill AFB in Utah for scrapping to provide parts and assemblies for other Invaders being prepared for Korea.

Pyote B-17s Get New Lives

Meanwhile, for the seven years between 1947 and 1953, the USAF withdrew stored B-17s from Pyote as needed to support the military mission. An inexact survey suggests that the breakdown for deployment of those B-17s pulled from storage at Pyote was as follows:

One source documents that there was a total of 43 B-17s active in the USAF inventory in 1950. Some of those active B-17s were retired to either Pyote or Davis-Monthan, some QB-17s were expended as drones, and some B-17s were lost in operational accidents, so the inventory coming from Pyote proved useful. It is interesting to note that in the above table, the B-17G (44-85579) that became the RB-17G was was withdrawn, redesignated, and then immediately transferred to Brazil for its use. Also, the B-17G (44-83387) transferred to 20th Century Fox studios in April 1949 for use as a studio prop for the 1950 film Twelve O’Clock High came from the storage depot at Pyote.

There are few photos of any of the postwar storage at Pyote, and virtually none that I have found of B-17s stored there (save one exception, noted below). Pyote was and still is quite remote, which suited the Air Force fine as they did not want to draw attention to its fields of stored warplanes in the desert. Getting civilians to come to Pyote as contractor employees proved difficult, and during the storage years there were many turf wars inside the USAF battling over whether to keep Pyote open or not. It was an expensive field to keep open partly due to its remoteness and, surprisingly, was high in humidity, something that did not bode well for long-term aircraft storage.

The Swoose and Pyote

As a matter of interest, though, there were two well-known aircraft stored at Pyote in the early 1950s. Both B-17D 40-3097, better known as The Swoose, and B-29 44-86292, better known as the Enola Gay, were parked at Pyote between November 1952 and December 1953 while awaiting final delivery to the National Air Museum. They were both flown out in late 1953 and delivered to Andrews AFB near Washington, D.C.

Pyote AFB Becomes a Scrapyard

There were at least eighteen unused B-17s, probably more, scrapped at Pyote during the period, with most of that happening after 1950. When Pyote AFB was finally scheduled to close at the end of1953, all of the remaining stored aircraft, consisting mainly of B-25s and B-29s, were either scrapped on site or made airworthy and ferried to storage at the now primary USAF-designated storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB. One source states that 250 remaining B-29s held in storage in late 1953 were scrapped on site by personnel at Pyote and crews brought in from Kelly AFB, Texas.

Details of the actual scrapping at Pyote AFB are hard to come by. There is no record that these bombers, be they B-17s, B-25s, or B-29s, were ever offered in scrap bids to contractors, and no unwanted airframes made it out as anything other than as an ingot. But evidently at least one civil contractor was brought in. One reliable account states that an Ohio firm, Aluminum and Magnesium, Inc. was a primary scrapper at Pyote. According that account, four large smelters were built on the field. After removing usable equipment, the aircraft to be scrapped were sliced apart using heavy cables and bulldozers. The pieces were then fed into the smelters to emerge as eight-foot-long ingots weighing about 500 pounds, each of which were then loaded on trucks or flat cars for transport to receiving customers around the country.

There may have been a bit of rush to scrap those airplanes that could not be flown out by the deadline of December 31, 1953, when the base was to be deactivated. Intriguing rumors remain of whole airplanes being buried at the field, but these have been largely discounted by those who were actually there. And, reportedly, there have been some searches of the area using sensitive magnetometers to detect underground metal to no avail. Nonetheless, the rumors remain and it would not be that surprising if found to be true.

Pyote is Closed and Returns to Texas Scrub

After being deactivated in December 1953, the old Rattlesnake Bomber Base enjoyed a bit of a resurgence here and there. It served for a short while as a USAF radar site. And then, for a few years in the 1980s, the Commemorative Air Force (then Confederate Air Force) had its Rattlesnake Squadron based at the field. However, after decades of abandonment it is now returning to desert scrub with only the skeletal remnants of one hangar still standing, that and the acres of overgrown concrete ramp and bituminous asphalt runways that have pretty much permanently scarred the Texas scrub.

For those who want to delve into the history of Pyote a bit more, there are several good paths to take. For those who want a close look, the Rattlesnake Bomber Base Museum is located at nearby Monahans. An internet search will also find numerous good pages plus a bunch of YouTube videos with information and photos. And, any serious researcher cannot miss using Paul Freeman’s Abandoned and Little Known Airfields website; here is the very informative entry for Pyote from that site.

And, there is also a dedicated book on the subject, The One and Only Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield in World War II by Thomas E. Alexander (available from Amazon and other places). The whole story about the base and surrounding area is told in detail. Photo reproduction is not great, though, and most of the photos in the book are otherwise available. (As noted, I have yet to find any photos of any B-17s held in storage at Pyote, The Swoose aside.) One must be careful reading the book, though, as some details around the edges of the subject are erroneous. One example is the implication that the aforementioned Swoose was the airplane that evacuated Gen. Douglas MacArthur and party from the Philippines in March 1942. One of the pilots of the B-17E that made made that flight, Maj. Frank Bostrom, was indeed assigned to Pyote with the 19th Bomb Group, but he was not flying The Swoose at the time. Also, a common but nagging error…there was never any “Army Air Force.” There were, however, “Army Air Forces.” Not a big deal, but worth mentioning here. Overall, the book gives a good account of the Pyote air base.

And…once more…I’m always on the lookout for any photos of B-17s in storage at Pyote during the postwar years. Please email if you are aware of any…thanks.