Lt. John Zink walks away from a T28 trainer to mark the end of the U.S. Air Force flight training program at Marana Air Base in June, 1957. His alphabetical listing made him the last of the line. Marana’s history in flight began in 1942 when the U.S. government purchased a small ranch for a flight training base. By 1943, the base was fully operational as Marana Army Air Field. By the end of World War II, it had grown to one of the largest wartime training bases in the world. The land was deeded to Pinal County after the war and for most of the 1950s was a U.S. Air Force flight school under private contract. It’s now known as Pinal Air Park.
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