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Ellington Field
Ellington Airport, formerly Ellington Field, is located 15 miles southeast of downtown Houston, Texas.
Named for 2nd Lt. Eric L. Ellington, a pioneer of military aviation who died in the service of his country in a plane crash near San Diego in 1913, Ellington Field was established early in 1917 as a pilot training center. The major difficulty in its construction was the conversion of a muddy swamp into an airbase. Mechanics and pilots wallowed and sweated in mud and water, working from reveille to taps to keep the rickety old Jennies and the then "new DeHaviland bombers" (remote ancestors of the DeHaviland Mosquitos now scourging Europe) in the air. Yet in spite of difficulties, Ellington Field men pioneered in night flying, aerial ambulance service and many other innovations, along with its constant turn-out of first-class fliers, including Col. W. H. Reid, now commanding the field.
Closed by the War Department in 1920, the field was reopened in 1921 and occupied for a year by the old 1st Pursuit Group. Later it was taken over by the 36th Division, Texas National Guard. It was also used by the 111th Observation Squadron until its transfer in 1926.
The field was forgotten in the years that followed. In 1930 the only remaining remnant of this outstanding World War I field was a single water tank at the south end of the reservation.
In 1940 it sprang into life again, assuming a heroic role in a new and vaster war. The cattle that had grazed in its thick grass were moved out, and in their place came row on orderly row of barracks, streets, runways, aprons, hangars. As an important unit in the vast training program of the Army Air Forces, it now supplies advanced training for pilot cadets destined to fly the great multi-engined bombers, and preflight training for thousands of navigator and bombardier trainees. The combat crews it has cradled are already giving a tremendous account of themselves in enemy skies, and untold thousands more will follow. Ellington Field is proud of its great heritage, and on this firm base looks forward to an ever-expanding vital part in the fight for freedom.
Source: Transcribed from Army Air Forces Collection, "Polaris: Class 43-21, Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas" (item 000516), AAF Collection, http://AAFCollection.info/items/list.php?item=000516 (accessed 09 January 2014), 1943, page 5.
Source: Location and map from Wikipedia contributors, "Ellington Airport (Texas)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ellington_Airport_(Texas)&oldid=578994503 (accessed January 9, 2014).
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Image | Locations | TitlePP OO NN LL EE CC AA | |
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41 | Ellington Field; Ellington, Texas, USA |
Astro-dome Class book for advanced navigator class 44-3 at Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas. |
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42 | Ellington Field; Ellington, Texas, USA |
Astro-dome Class book for navigator class 42-2 at Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas. |
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43 | Ellington Field; Ellington, Texas, USA |
Astro-Dome Class book for navigator class 44-01 at Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas. |
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44 | Ellington Field; Ellington, Texas, USA |
Aircrew, The Class book for mixed bombardier and navigator classes 41-01 and 41-02 at Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas. |
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Quick Link: https://aafcollection.info/items/list.php?site=ELLINGTON
Curator: Mike Voisin
All items in the Army Air Forces Collection are licensed by Mike Voisin under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |