Air Force Officer Training School - The History of OTS

The History of OTS

When the Aviation Cadet (AvCad) Program proved insufficient to meet wartime commissioned officer requirements, the United States Army Air Forces established the Officer Candidate School (OCS) on 23 February 1942 at Miami Beach, Florida, its mission being to train and commission members from the enlisted ranks. OCS moved to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (now Lackland AFB) in 1944 and gained the additional mission of training officers directly from civilian status in September 1951.

OTS was organized at Lackland AFB, Texas in November 1959, with the first OTS class (60-A) composed of 89 officer trainees, including 11 women, who graduated and were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants on 9 February 1960. The number of OTS graduates has varied over the years, from 323 the first year to a high of 7,894 officers in 1967. With the establishment of OTS, Air Force OCS closed its doors and conducted its last graduation in June 1963. Concurrently, the Air Force also commenced a phaseout of its long-standing Aviation Cadet (AvCad) Program at Lackland AFB. Unlike OTS, AvCad was limited to pilot and navigator candidates. In addition, AvCads had to successfully complete either undergraduate pilot training or undergraduate navigator training before they could be commissioned as Second Lieutenants. The last AvCad pilot was commissioned in October 1961 at the former Reese AFB, Texas and the last AvCad navigator was commissioned in March 1965 at the former James Connally AFB, Texas. OTS then became the sole organization for training future Air Force officers at Lackland AFB.

On 1 July 1993, Air Training Command (ATC) merged with Air University (AU) to form the new Air Education and Training Command (AETC), with Air University becoming a direct reporting unit (DRU) under AETC. OTS, which was formerly under ATC, and Air Force ROTC, which was formerly under AU, were then realigned under both AETC and AU. Until 22 September 1993, Officer Training School was located on the Medina Annex of Lackland AFB, Texas, graduating Class 93-06 on that date. During the spring and summer of 1993, OTS gradually relocated to Maxwell AFB, Alabama, commencing operations in interim facilities on 25 September 1993.

Historically, Air Force ROTC had been headed by a major general or brigadier general, while OTS had been headed by a colonel. In February 1997, in an effort to reduce duplication of effort and streamline administrative and reporting procedures within AU, Air Force ROTC and Officer Training School realigned under a newly created umbrella organization, Air Force Officer Accession and Training Schools (AFOATS). Under this restructuring, OTS and AFROTC were placed under the leadership of individual colonels, while general officer oversight for both OTS and AFROTC, representing three-quarters of Air Force officer production, was placed under one command, the AFOATS commander, a brigadier general.

In the late 1990s, a $52 million military construction (MILCON) project commenced to build a new, dedicated OTS campus at Maxwell AFB to replace the interim facilities initially occupied in late 1993. The majority of this MILCON project was completed in 2001 and all projects relating to the new-cum-current OTS campus were completed by 2004.