South Valley Regional Airport is a public airport located in West Jordan, southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Established as a Utah World War II army airfield, it is the primary general aviation airport in the area and is a Utah Army National Guard training base with Apache and Blackhawk helicopters. Leading Edge Aviation is the single fixed-base operator (FBO) onsite; the FBO and Alta Aircraft Maintenance operate maintenance facilities, and the FBO and Utah Helicopter Flight Academy operate flight schools. History On 10 February 1942, the United States district engineer (Colonel E. G. Thomas) recommended a "5,450-acre dry farming area in Kearns" for an inland Army training site. For one of "the eight new technical training installations rushed into operation" during 1942–3, a Kearns, Utah "plot of 1,405 acres was purchased". The Kearns Center military unit was activated (designated) 1 May 1942, and "a contract for a theater of operations cantonment was let" on 16 June 1942. "Basic Training Center No. 5" began operations on 17 July and opened on 20 July under Training Command. A "Denver and Rio Grande Western" spur was built to the installation's railroad station, and by 21 August all barracks were complete. "Upon completion of their basic training most of the pre-aviation cadets [were] sent to one of the many college operated [flight schools] under the supervision of the Army Air , known as the Civilian Pilot Training Program. The 510th Training Group and three technical school squadrons (1032d, 1033d, and 1034th) were assigned to Kearns on 10 September 1942, and Kearns' commander, Colonel Leo F. Post, arrived by September 12. Construction was completed in October 1942 and Kearns' "basic military training and technical training" continued until 30 September 1943. Kearns Army Air Field Kearns Army Air Field was the flight facility constructed on the larger base and was used by 9 B-24 Liberator bombardment groups – 459th, 460th, 455th, 456th, 465th, 466th, 467th, 458th and from Gowen Field, 461st, formed 31 August17 October 1943. The base transferred to Second Air Force on 1 October 1943, and the bomb groups all were reassigned by the end of 1943 (e.g., the 461st to Wendover Field). In January 1944, Kearns AAF began performing personnel replacement training, rather than group training. In April, ground echelon training for B-24 support personnel was ended. Camp Kearns In April 1944, "Camp Kearns" was returned to the Western Technical