Taylor Field (Airfield)

Taylor Field
Gunter Auxiliary Airfield #5
Montgomery, Alabama

A 1918 aerial view looking northwest along the amazing number of hangars (16 of them) at Taylor Field
Taylor Field
Coordinates 32°18′14″N 086°07′19″W / 32.30389°N 86.12194°W
Type Pilot training airfield
Site information
Controlled by   Air Service, United States Army
  United States Army Air Forces
Condition Agricultural area
Site history
Built 1917
In use 1917–1946
Battles/wars
World War I

World War II
Garrison information
Garrison Training Section, Air Service (World War I)
Army Air Force Training Command (World War I)

Taylor Field is a closed military airfield located 11 miles east-southeast of Montgomery, Alabama. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917.[1]

History

The base was named Taylor Field, being named after Captain Ralph L. Taylor, of Stamford, Connecticut, who was commissioned a Captain in the Nebraska National Guard Air Service on 3 May 1917, and ordered to active duty at Mineola Field (later Roosevelt Field), New York, on 23 May 1917. Captain Taylor was an aviation instructor at Mineola field, and was killed in an accident on 2 August 1917.[2]

World War I

The property leased by the War Department consisted of 800 acres of land for which the government paid $4,000 a year as rent, with an option of purchase for $32,000. The land was leased 16 November 1917. It was the first military flying facility in Alabama. It was named for Captain Ralph L. Taylor, who was killed in an airplane crash at Mineola Field, New York in August 1917. Four service squadrons 128, 129, 131 and 193 arrived at the Field by April 16, 1918. In addition there was the usual complement of quartermaster and sanitary and medical detachments.

The Air Service used Taylor Field as a primary flight school with an eight-week course. The maximum capacity was 300 students. It had sixteen hangars, repair shops, warehouses, barracks, a hospital and nearly 200 Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" and De Havilland DH-4 "Gypsy Month" trainers. Aircraft assigned to the field were serviced by the Aviation Repair Depot, Montgomery, Alabama

Active flying began 2 May 1918. Major E. M. Hoffman, Signal Corps was the first officer in charge of the Flying Field. He was succeeded by 2nd Lt. Charles N. Monteith, July 9, 1918, he in turn on October 2, 1918, was succeeded by 2nd Lt. Kenneth G. Fraser. The Field graduated 139 cadets. The total number of flying time 20,619 hours, and 27 minutes.

Training units assigned to Taylor Field were:[3]

Re-designated as Squadron "A", July–November 1918
Re-designated as Squadron "B", July–November 1918
Re-designated as Squadron "C", July–November 1918
Re-designated as Squadron "D", July–November 1918

The flying school trained One Hundred and thirty-nine pilots in eight-week courses. Some deployed and fought in combat on the Western Front in France during World War I.

The airfield closed in April 1919.

World War II

Taylor Field in 1945. Note some of the World War I facilities remaining for use as an auxiliary of Gunter AAF.

It was reopened as Gunter Auxiliary Airfield #5 during World War II and was used as an auxiliary landing field for the flight school at Gunter Army Airfield. After the war, it was closed in July 1946.

Post World War II

After World War II, the airfield was sold off to private owners and the remaining structures were dismantled. Other than a cleared area, all the former hangars and structures of the military airfield have been torn down. The site of Taylor Field is located south of the intersection of Ray Thornington Road & Foxchase Drive. There is an Alabama historical marker located on the south side of Ray Thornington Road next to a dirt road heading to the south. The dirt road may have been an entrance road to the former airfield.

See also

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

  1. ↑ William R. Evinger: Directory of Military Bases in the U.S., Oryx Press, Phoenix, Ariz., 1991, p. 147.
  2. ↑ Location of U.S. Aviation Fields, The New York Times, 21 July 1918
  3. ↑ Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the First World War, Volume 3, Part 3, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1949 (1988 Reprint)