June 1940, the War Department approved the recommendation to lease the land. In August 1940 the first military personnel arrived and construction began. The hospital was used as a headquarters building and Colonel Aubrey Hornsby was the project officer and later the first commanding officer. The Army leased the 187 acre municipal airport and purchased an additional 300 acres for the cantonment area. Complicated leasing agreements delayed construction and the Army facilities were not completed in time, so the first two classes, Class 41-A with 107 students and Class 41-B, trained at Maxwell Field on the other side of town. The first class to train at Gunter was 41-C which began instruction on November 28, 1940. In late 1940, Mayor Gunter died and, on the recommendation of Colonel Hornsby, the flying field was officially named "Gunter Field" in early 1941. By July 1941, construction of the field was largely complete. In addition to the main airfield, the following known sub-bases and auxiliaries were used: McLemore Auxiliary Field Elmore Auxiliary Field (now Wetumpka Municipal Airport) Mount Meigs Auxiliary Field Taylor Field Dannelly Auxiliary Field Deatsville Auxiliary Field In 1943, 3,500 foot long hard surfaced runways were added. Gunter was the first base established by the Southeastern Training Center exclusively for Basic Flight Training. As such, it also trained instructors and other personnel for the other Basic Training bases opened in the Southeast that included Cochran AAF in Macon, Georgia; Bainbridge AB, Georgia; Greenville AAF, Mississippi; Shaw AAF in Sumter, South Carolina; and at Augusta, Georgia's civilian-run Bush Field. Students would come to Basic Flight Training after completing Primary Training. In 1941, the Basic course was 10 weeks in length in which the student received 70 flying hours. After completion of the course, students would be chosen for advanced single or multi-engine training. During World War II, the field served as a flying school for not just Army pilots, but for British (under the Arnold Scheme), French and Canadians as well. By 1944, there were nearly four hundred aircraft assigned to Gunter Field. The primary aircraft used for Basic Training, by both the Army and the Navy, during most of the war was the fixed gear Vultee BT-13 and BT-15 Valiant. By later 1944, the BT-13s and 15s were worn out and they began to be replaced by the North American AT-6 Texan. After World War II ended, flight training was transferred