DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker at Pyote tells this story, and here's my telling of it. Now, when you're out here in Ward County and the desert wind is kicking up grit off the caliche, it's worth pausing to think about what this stretch of West Texas scrubland used to be. Because what became Pyote Army Air Base had a reputation before the first runway was ever poured — and that reputation came slithering out of the ground during construction.
They found rattlesnake dens. Numerous rattlesnake dens. Uncovered them one after another as they broke ground, which is how the place earned its nickname before a single bomber ever touched down: Rattlesnake Bomber Base.
That name had some teeth to it, and so did everything that followed. Pyote Army Air Base was established in 1942, sitting on two thousand seven hundred acres of University of Texas land way out in the Trans-Pecos. Two runways, each stretching eight thousand four hundred feet — long enough for the heavy iron those crews would be flying.
Five large hangars. Hundreds of buildings. And when it was humming at full capacity, somewhere between three thousand and four thousand soldiers moving through, along with two thousand civilians keeping the whole operation alive.
On January the first, 1943 — New Year's Day, no rest for the determined — the 19th Bombardment Group arrived, later known as the 19th Combat Crew training outfit, putting B-17 crews through their paces. And Pyote didn't just do the job. It did it better than most.
The base came to be highly regarded as a top training field, and its crews set new records for flying hours. Records. Out here in the rattlesnake dirt.
Then in July of 1944, the operation shifted. The B-17s gave way to B-29s — bigger, more complex, the kind of machine that demanded everything from the men who flew her. The reputation held.
After the war, the base found a new purpose. Storage. At one point, Pyote housed as many as two thousand aircraft on those flat West Texas acres.
Two thousand airplanes parked in the desert. Among them — and here's where you stop and let that land — the Enola Gay. The plane that dropped the first atomic bomb sat here, in the dust and the heat and the silence of Ward County.
Eventually Pyote was used for a short time as a radar station, but the math stopped working. By 1966, it was no longer economical to maintain such a large base for so small an operation, and the facility was closed. From rattlesnake dens to the plane that changed history, and then — quiet.
That's the thing about West Texas. It'll hold just about anything you put in it.
What the marker says
Nicknamed for the numerous rattlesnake dens that were uncovered during its construction, Pyote Army Air Base was established in 1942 to train replacement crews for bombers during World War II. Located on 2,700 acres of University of Texas land, the base consisted of two 8,400-foot runways, five large hangars, and hundreds of buildings used to house 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers an 2,000 civilians. On Jan. 1, 1943, the 19th Bombardment Group (later known as the 19th Combat Crew training B-17 bomber crews. Pyote came to be highly regarded as a top training field, and its crews set many new records for flying hours. This reputation continued after the transition to B-29s was made in July 1944. During the post-war years, the base served as a storage facility, at one time housing as many as 2,000 aircraft, including the "Enola Gay", the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. Pyote also was used for a short time as a radar station, but by 1966 it was no longer economical to maintain such a large base for so small an operation, and the facility was closed.