buildings had been completed. Flying out of Sky Harbor Airport until the Luke runways were ready, pilots received ten weeks of instruction and the first class graduated 15 August 1941. Then-captain Barry Goldwater served as director of ground training the following year. World War II During World War II, Luke Field was the largest fighter training base in the U.S. Army Air Forces, graduating more than 12,000 fighter pilots from advanced and operational courses earning the nickname "Home of the Fighter Pilot". The base was under the control of the 37th Flying Training Wing (Advanced Single-Engine), Western Flying Training Command, AAF Flying Training Command. During the years of World War II, more than 17,000 pilots trained at Luke Field, making it the largest single engine advanced flying training school in the U.S. More than a million hours of flying were logged, primarily in the AT-6 Texan, along with some transitioning to P-40 Warhawk fighters and later the P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt. Although continually modified during the war years, the course of advanced flight training at Luke averaged about 10 weeks and included both flight training and ground school. Approximately 60 hours of flying instruction covered formation flying, navigation, and instrument flying, as well as a bit of aerial acrobatics. About 20 additional hours of flight practice concentrated on aerial and gunnery training. Ground school, or classroom training for the advanced flying course, varied from about 100 to 130 hours and was intermingled with flight time in the aircraft. Cadets flew in the morning and attended ground school in the afternoons, or flew training missions in the afternoon after a morning of ground school. At the peak of the training program at Luke, some students were required to attend night classes. Ground school included instruction in navigation, flight planning, radio equipment, maintenance, and weather. By 7 February 1944, pilots at Luke had achieved a million hours of flying time. By 1946, however, the number of pilots trained dropped to 299 and the base was deactivated 30 November that year. A World War II film, A Guy Named Joe, included some footage filmed at Luke. United States Air Force Air Training Command Soon after combat started in Korea, Luke field was reactivated on 1 February 1951 as Luke Air Force Base, part of the Air Training Command (ATC) under the reorganized United States Air Force (USAF). A steady pipeline of trained