Because of the wartime need for officers of the caliber of those attending the Maxwell institution, in May 1941 the Army Air Corps suspended instruction at the tactical school and reduced its faculty and staff to seven officers. Anticipating the institution's eventual reopening, the Army Air Corps moved the skeletonized Air Corps Tactical School to Washington, DC, and placed it under the Directorate of Individual Training. In spite of the institution's successful efforts in developing Air Corps planners and leaders, the Air Corps discontinued the Air Corps Tactical School on 9 October 1942 with the intention of reopening it after the war.