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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“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)