Army Air Base, which was placed on standby status in November 1945. However, there were plans made by the Army Air Force for its continuing use. One of the lessons of World War II was that the airplane was invaluable in the support of ground forces, both in the close air support and transport role. Tactical Air Command (TAC) was established as one of the post-war Army Air Forces' three major commands. The USAAF Troop Carrier Command (TCC) was inactivated as part of this reorganization and the Third Air Force was reassigned from the disbanding Continental Air Forces. TAC assumed command of the Troop Carrier transport mission and assigned it to the Third Air Force on 21 March 1946, which was assigned to Greenville AAB. At Greenville, the Third Air Force was assigned a mixture of C-46 Commando and C-47 Skytrain aircraft and several Air Force Reserve troop carrier groups. Also, surplus C-54 Skymasters that had been originally purchased for Air Transport Command (ATC) were made available for troop carrier use. The Third Air Force was inactivated on 1 November 1946, being replaced by the Ninth Air Force, which had just returned from Europe. With the establishment of the United States Air Force as an independent service branch in September 1947, the airfield was renamed Greenville Air Force Base. In the late 1940s many of TAC's Troop Carrier Groups/Wings were assigned directly to HQ TAC with the rest to the Air Force Reserve' Fourteenth Air Force and 302d Air Division. Greenville AFB remained an administrative facility for several years, maintaining aircraft and providing training to these Air Force Reserve units. During the Berlin Blockade in 1948, Air Force Reserve troop carrier groups at Greenville AFB deployed C-54s to Germany to replace the C-47s that began the Berlin Airlift to sustain the 'Großstadt'. At least one C-82 Packet, an early version of the C-119 Flying Boxcar, also participated in the airlift for several weeks. In 1949, a 0.5-mile dirt car racing track was built just south of the base. The track took the name "Air Base Speedway", as a nod to the nearby airfield. The track held a NASCAR Grand National race on August 25, 1951. Noted race driver Bob Flock won the race in an Oldsmobile. The track closed down in 1952. Korean War The theater troop carrier mission was expanded rapidly during the Korean War when many of these