Vintage photos: Air Force basic training and recruit life in San Antonio

Click through the gallery to see photos from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base through the years. Click through the gallery to see photos from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base through the years. Photo: Express-News Photo: Express-News Image 1 of / 87 Caption Close Vintage photos: Air Force basic training and recruit life in San Antonio 1 / 87 Back to Gallery

Millions of men and women across the country have started careers as fresh-faced recruits in basic military training (BMT) on the West Side of San Antonio at the "Gateway to the Air Force," Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Training Airmen since 1946, Lackland is the Air Force's only program for basic military training, and has been the site for rigorous combat drills and endless marches and parade rests under the South Texas sun.

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In the San Antonio Express-News archives, photographs of Air Force recruits in training date back to the 1940s. Facilities like the barracks have been renovated, the length of training has increased, and national security is drastically different then it was during World War II.

Still, many aspects of American recruit life are timeless in Military City USA, the place where San Antonio had four Air Force bases at one time.

Men shave their heads, and women pin their hair above the collar. Uniforms are pressed, and beds are inspected. Drill sergeants yell, and "chow," no matter how dry, is devoured after a long, brutal day. And ecstatic "wing nuts" celebrate graduation, throwing their caps high in the air.

Click through the gallery above to see recruit life through the ages.

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