In April 1942 the airport was leased by the United States Army Air Forces and became a wartime flight training school. McKellar Field was assigned to the Southeast Training Center (later the Eastern Flying Training Command) as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. It was under the command of the 68th Flying Training Detachment, 29th Flying Training Wing. The airfield began training flying cadets under contract to Georgia Air Services, Inc. Flying training was performed with PT-17 Stearman biplanes as the primary trainer. It also had several Fairchild PT-19, Ryan PT-22 Recruits and PT-27 Kaydets assigned.