Fresno, California, is located in the Central Valley, half way between Los Angeles to the south, and San Francisco to the north.

The Fresno County Fairgrounds are located about a mile west of the downtown. The grounds were taken over by the U.S. government at the outbreak of WWII to serve as a collection point for ethnic Japanese families, who lived temporarily in as many as 100 barracks before moving to more permanent relocation centers.

By November, 1942, all ethnic Japanese had moved and the facility was transferred to the U.S. Army, for use as a military training base. The Army called it Basic Training Center No. 8, Fresno, California, or BTC #8.

The base was designed to take newly enlisted recruits into the Army Air Corps, and train them in basic military issues before sending them on for further training in specific areas. This training initially lasted 24 days (November, 1942), but was later increased, reaching 56 days by June of 1943.

During their time at the BTC, recruits received training in:^[1]Crave, Wesley and Cate, James, THE ARMY AIR FORCES In World War I1 Volume Six MEN AND PLANES New Imprint by the Office of Air Force History Washington, D.C., 1983

• Basic military general orders, military conduct, close order and open order drill.
• Familiarization with all standard weapons, assembly, cleaning and utilization.
• Physical training with obstacle course.
• Gas mask training and procedures.
• Rifle range qualification on the 30 cal carbine rifle
• One week of field training