Laughlin Air Force Base<\/h3>
Laughlin Air Force Base (IATA: DLF, ICAO: KDLF, FAA LID: DLF) is a facility of the United States Air Force located east of Del Rio, Texas.\n<\/p>
Laughlin AFB, the largest pilot training base in the US Air Force, is home to the 47th Flying Training Wing of the Air Education and Training Command and the 96th Flying Training Squadron of the Air Force Reserve Command. On weekdays, the airfield sees more takeoffs and landings than any other airport in the country.[citation needed]<\/p>
Laughlin AFB was originally named Laughlin Army Air Field on March 3, 1943, after Jack T. Laughlin, a B-17E Flying Fortress pilot. He was trained as a pilot and was actually co-pilot of B-17E, tail number 41-2476. On the day of his first bombing mission, he was bumped by the Group Commander Major Stanley K. Robinson (Robinson was co-pilot next to pilot Capt. Walter W. Sparks). Major Robinson brought along his own combat-experienced navigator, Lt. Richard Cease. Laughlin had no assigned position on the plane for the mission. He became Del Rio's first World War II casualty when the plane he was flying in (most likely as a waist gunner for the mission) was lost at sea, having succumbed to damage received over the Makassar Strait on 29 (or 28) January 1942. The damage occurred during two bombing runs against Japanese warships and transports in the Makassar Strait off the coast of Balikpapan, Borneo. The field became simply Laughlin Field on November 11, 1943, and later an U.S. Army Air Forces Auxiliary Field. During World War II, Laughlin's primary mission was the training of B-26 Marauder pilots and aircrews. It was closed in October 1945.\n<\/p><\/div>\n