George Crockett, a flight instructor, built Alamo Field in 1942 on the site currently occupied by Harry Reid Airport. Crockett named it in honor of his forefather Davy Crockett, who had fought in the Battle of the Alamo. The airfield opened in January 1943. It catered to general aviation and included three gravel runways, a flight school, and a terminal building. Meanwhile, all commercial airlines flew into the Las Vegas Army Airfield. They shared the facility with the Army Air Forces, which had been operating an air base there since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The base closed in 1946. With the onset of the Cold War, the military said it was amenable to reopening the base, but it wanted the airlines to move elsewhere. Crockett was willing to let them use his airfield, so the Clark County Commission entered into negotiations with him. In the meantime, the county held a bond election to fund construction work that would enable Alamo Field to handle commercial operations. Proponents of the bond issue, who included the chamber of commerce and casino executives, sought the economic benefits of both an air base and a modern airport capable of serving the increasing numbers of tourists that they expected to arrive. Voters approved the bond in 1947. With the help of U.S. senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, the county finalized a deal with Crockett to purchase his airfield the following year. On December 19, 1948, the airport was renamed McCarran Field and began receiving passenger flights. The growth of the Las Vegas casino industry during the 1950s fueled a rise in air traffic; the city went from receiving 36,000 passengers in 1948 to nearly one million in 1959. In September 1960, United Airlines became the first carrier to offer jet flights to Las Vegas. The airport was ill-equipped to handle the increasing passenger counts and the advent of commercial jetliners. Consequently, the county built a new terminal, which opened in March 1963. Another expansion project, which included adding Concourses A and B and lengthening the runways, ended in 1974. However, traffic levels had already rendered the project insufficient by the time it was completed. Airport officials therefore prepared for further expansion. The deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 led to an increase in the number of carriers at McCarran and prompted officials to accelerate their expansion plans. In October 1985, a central terminal, Concourse C, and a people mover between the two buildings opened. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, America West Airlines was the busiest airline at McCarran. The carrier began offering cheap night flights to Las Vegas in 1986. It ultimately developed a hub at the airport that functioned between 10 pm and 2 am every night. The strategy capitalized on the fact that Las Vegas was open 24 hours a day and enabled the airline to decrease costs. America West charged low fares because it was the only carrier operating such a large number of flights at that time of night. Most of its customers were tourists, while the remainder were changing planes. By the late 1990s, Southwest Airlines had overtaken America West as McCarran's largest carrier and occupied all the gates in Concourse C. According to contemporary reports, Southwest emphasized high-frequency service, low fares, and cooperative marketing with local resorts in the Las Vegas market. Multiple projects were finished during the 1990s. The Charter/International Terminal, later renamed Terminal 2, opened in December 1991. A cargo center was dedicated two years later. In 1994, a tunnel beneath the east–west runways that linked the airport to the Las Vegas Beltway opened. A nine-level parking facility was completed in 1996, and in June 1998, the first two wings of Concourse D were inaugurated. McCarran also gained its first scheduled flights to Europe and Asia.