Transferred to the Strategic Air Command' Fifteenth Air Force in March 1947. With the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as an independent service later that year, the installation was renamed Wendover Air Force Base in 1947, but while bombardment groups deploying on maneuvers used the bombing range, the rest of the base remained unused. It was inactivated in 1948 and declared surplus, although retained in a caretaker status. The Air Materiel Command assumed responsibility for the base in July 1950, placing it under the jurisdiction of the Ogden Air Material Area at Hill Air Force Base. Between 1950 and 1954, the base was manned by a skeleton crew of thirteen. The buildings deteriorated. Some were removed, some demolished, and some burned down.