History
Schwimmer Airfield was built by the US Army in early 1942 with a single runway was 5,300 feet by 100 feet. Later, around October 1942, it was surfaced with marston matting. No revetments were built at the airfield, but taxiway and parking areas dispersed to the north of the runway in a semicircle. Living quarters were pyramid tents a half mile from the strip in scrub trees.
Many units were rotated in and out of the airfield during its use. Major units assigned were:
- 13th Bombardment Squadron (3d Bombardment Group), B-25 Mitchells
- 9th Fighter Squadron (49th Fighter Group), P-40 Warhawk
- 39th Fighter Squadron (35th Fighter Group). P-39 Aircobras; P-38 Lightnings
The airfield was closed after the war, and today there is little trace of the facility. Houses have been built along much of the former runway area. The rest is overgrown and abandoned. Some wartime debris litter the area. Weapons bays are visible from the road for bomb storage prior to loading.
Read more about this topic: Schwimmer Airfield
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)