the design of the airfield was upgraded to that of a bomber airfield, and consisted of three runways: a 6000-foot concrete runway and two shorter asphalt runways to accommodate crosswind landings. when officially activated on 21 november 1941, the station was assigned to the 24th composite wing, sixth air force, which controlled (in addition to this base) atkinson, beane, coolidge, ramey and waller fields in the antilles air command. constructions of airfield runways and a support station was ongoing throughout 1942, and the first operational unit did not arrive until september.