During a relatively short period of time, from 1939 to late 1943, the Army Air Corps grew from just 17 air bases to 345 main bases, 116 sub-bases and 322 auxiliary fields. The author poured over thousands of frames of microfilm, scoured old newspaper accounts, combed archives, and interviewed personnel and family members who worked and lived in spartan conditions at 12 stateside World War II Army Air Corps bases. The resulting history brings these bases to life and gives readers a glimpse of what it meant to train, work, and live on them, as well as the unprecedented effort it took to build them.