Continued from Monday.
In 1920, the land was purchased from Henry Joy and Congress also issued funds to turn the rather basic site into a premier airfield.
On June 27, 1919, it became the home of the 1st Pursuit Group, currently the oldest combat group in the Air Force They had organized in France during the First World War. They remained at the field for twenty years. At one time, James Doolittle was stationed there.
On October 27, 1940, the 17th Pursuit Group Consolidated deployed from there to the Philippines and it became Selfridge Army Air Field of the First Air Force. On March 29, 1943, the 332nd Fighter Group moved to the field. They were better known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
The 477th Composite Group formed on June 15, 1944 to train the Airmen with the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and North American B-25 Mitchell bombers. On May 5, 1944, segregation and racism caused the Airmen to move to Godman Field in Kentucky.
Like I said, I'd never heard of the place before the fragments of the plane were dug up in the Michigan field.
Now We Both Know a Little. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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