Freeman Army Airfield was named in honor of Captain Richard S. Freeman, a native of Indiana and a 1930 graduate of
West Point. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross, the
Mackay Trophy, and was also one of the pioneers of the Army Air Mail Service. Freeman was killed on 6 February 1941 in the crash of a
B-17 Flying Fortress (B-17B 38-216) near
Lovelock, Nevada while en route to
Wright Field, Ohio. The aircraft was equipped with the top secret
Norden bombsight and sabotage was suspected as the cause of the crash, but was never proven.
World War II Initial surveys of the area were made in April 1942 and the present site of Freeman Municipal Airport was selected for construction. The selected site was announced on 3 April 1942. Army Air Forces officials met with local landowners to obtain rights to a single tract of 2,500 acres for the main airfield and support base, along with five additional tracts for auxiliary landing fields near Walesboro , Grammer, St. Thomas , Kentucky, Zenas and Valonia , Indiana. Of the five auxiliaries, Walesboro and St. Anne were to have concrete runways. Only three of these can be located today. The first construction for the new airfield began in late June 1942 with construction proceeding throughout the summer. It included more than one hundred buildings, all intended to be temporary. Station buildings and streets were also constructed, the buildings consisting primarily of wood, tar paper, and non-masonry siding. The use of concrete and steel was limited because of the critical need elsewhere. Most buildings were hot and dusty in the summer and very cold in the winter. Water, sewer and electrical services were also constructed. The airfield consisted of runways in a "star" layout consisting of four 5,500 x 150' runways laid out in a north/south, northeast/southwest, east/west and a northwest/southeast direction. An extra-large parking ramp was constructed to accommodate large numbers of training aircraft, several hangars, a control tower and other auxiliary support aircraft buildings. War Department General Order Number 10, dated 3 March 1943, announced that the airfield was to be named
Freeman Army Airfield in honor of the Indiana native killed in a 1941 B-17 crash. Captain Freeman helped establish
Ladd Field which is today's
Fort Wainwright just outside Fairbanks, Alaska. He was Ladd Field's first commander. Twin-engine training ended in May 1944 and AAFTC initiated helicopter training at Freeman Field in June 1944. Freeman was the first helicopter base in the AAF, The first instructor pilots arrived on 30 June and preparations for the helicopter training were made in great secrecy, as in 1944 very few people had seen one and the technology was new and revolutionary. The group assigned to coordinate their arrival was known as "Section B-O". also has an armory on the former base. Also, Freeman Army Air Field Museum is located near the airport office. The museum contains a large collection of memorabilia that has been collected and donated by flyers who were stationed there and other interested persons. Several groups are engaged in locating and recovering any aviation artifacts from the aircraft which were destroyed and buried in 1946. The groups are currently in communication with former base personnel, local eyewitnesses, and historians in order to get a comprehensive picture of where the burial pits are located and what items were put in them. ==See also==