Editing Ellsworth Air Force Base (section)

===World War II===
On 2 January 1942 during [[World War II]], the [[United States War Department]] established Rapid City Army Air Base to train [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] heavy bomber units to fight the [[Axis powers|Axis]] in Europe. The control tower opened on 30 September 1942; runways, quarters, offices, and facilities were complete on 1 October 1942, and five hangars were completed in late 1942. The airfield had three concrete runways, 7050x300 (N/S), 7000x300 (E/W), and 7872x300 (NW/SE). Rapid City AAF was assigned to the [[17th Bombardment Training Wing]], [[II Bomber Command]]. The 88th Bombardment Group was reassigned to the new base in October 1942 to be the base's Operational Training Unit.

In March 1944, the 225th Army Air Force Base Unit switched from training entire units to training individual replacement personnel to send to units deployed overseas. The field's instructors taught thousands of pilots, navigators, radio operators and gunners from nine heavy bombardment groups and numerous smaller units. On 15 July 1945, the 225th AAFBU was inactivated and Rapid City AAB was placed on standby status as the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) began to demobilize.