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While
many of Texas’ current municipal airports were postwar gifts to the
host communities, the case was reversed in Sweetwater
where the existing municipal airport became a training facility in
May of 1942.
The transfer was a tremendous help to the war effort since it only
required expansion and improvement of the field, which had been in
use since the late 1920s. The name was chosen from a contest sponsored
by the local newspaper.
Expanded to a total of 920 acres by the city of Sweetwater,
the War Department leased it for a token payment of $1.00 per year. |
| The
Former Avenger Field location at Sweetwater's Airport |
Training the
necessary pilots and personnel for a two-theater war was a daunting
task and during the first months of the war, instructors were often
civilian contractors. This was the case with the first class to graduate
from the facility – a single class of British RAF cadets. After that,
ten classes of American aviation cadets graduated and then three classes
of enlisted student pilots (most pilots were commissioned officers).
The
lasting legacy of the field was formed from February 21, 1943 until
December 20th, 1944 when the base became the training facility for
the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
Licensed female civilian pilots were recruited and trained to fly
military aircraft, ferrying them from factory to shipping point and
on occasion flying damaged planes back for repair. This enabled more
male pilots to be sent into combat. |
| Women
Airforce Service Pilots historical marker |
Jacqueline
Cochran
The unit was led by aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran, a natural-born pilot
who held more speed, distance and altitude records than any other
aviator, male or female.
A friend of the soon-to-be-missing Amelia Earhart, Cochran was part
of "Wings for Britain" prior to the U.S. entry into WWII.
Delivering American aircraft to Britain, she became the first woman
to fly a bomber across the Atlantic.
She first worked for the British, her job recruiting qualified U.S.
women pilots to fly for the British Air Transport Auxiliary. After
the U.S. became a combatant, it was Cochran who proposed a unit of
female transport pilots in the U.S.
Howard Hughes Field
Houston’s Howard Hughes
Field (see the 1940
Houston Air Terminal Museum) had been a WASP training facility,
but heavy fogs and civilian air traffic necessitated the move to Sweetwater.
Avenger Field trained both men and women for a brief period, but beginning
in April of 1943 it was designated the only all-female air base in
history (excepting male instructors, maintenance and communication
crews).
Avenger
graduated 1,074 pilots during its tenure and the pilots learned to
fly everything from trainers to the new B-29 Superfortress. In 1945
the field became a training base for P-47 Thunderbolt pilots, the
pursuit planes that escorted B-17s over their bombing runs over Germany.
In November 1945 ownership reverted to the City of Sweetwater.
It was reopened briefly as an auxiliary field for Big Springs’ Webb
Air Force Base during the Korean War. |
Avenger
Field
WW II WASP Memorials
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| "The memorials
are located at the airport in a stand alone hanger at the south end
of the airport, with the large monument at the TSTC grounds toward
the north west part of the field." - Mike
Price, photographer, December 08, 2007 |
| Names
of WASPs on display |
| Close-up
of statue in preceeding photo. |
| Inscription:
"To the best women pilots in the world." - General "Hap"
Arnold |
| Museum
Sign showing the wings wore by WASPs |
Photographers'
Notes:
Subject: Sweetwater WW II WASP Memorials
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were a little known group
of female pilots who performed many duties short of combat during
WW II. Their
story makes pretty good reading for those interested in WW
II. All were trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater.
While the army was forming the 509'th group (to deliver the atomic
bombs) the men pilots did not want to fly the large and complicated
B-29 which had a reputation for problems. The commanding officer brought
in two WASP pilots and in a couple of days trained them to fly that
plane and they proceed to shame the men into flying.
The only flying B-29, owned by the CAF in Midland,
carries the nose art name of FIFI. - Mike
Price, December 08, 2007 |
| 3-D
Statue of "Fifi" (Finfinella) is in the Nolan
County Courthouse lobby. The mascot design was supplied by the
Walt Disney Co. |
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