History
Initially known as Atterbury Air Base, its original name was borrowed from the Army's then-active Camp Atterbury, located only 14 miles north of the base. It was named in honor of Brig. Gen. W.W. Atterbury, who had been in command of transportation and supplies in Europe during World War I. A graduate of Yale University, Gen. Atterbury later became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The base was renamed Bakalar Air Force Base in a formal dedication ceremony held November 13, 1954, in honor of First Lieutenant John Edmond Bakalar. A native of Hammond, Indiana, Lt. Bakalar, of the 353rd Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group, was killed in action September 1, 1944, over France when his P-51D-5 Mustang, 44-13895, crashed.
Read more about this topic: Bakalar Air Force Base
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“These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)