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.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Goldsboro, NC's Seymour Johnson Air Force Base

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

Seymour Johnson Field, Goldsboro, was activated 12 June  1942 as Headquarters, Technical School, Army Air Force Technical Training Command,  In 1943 is began training personnel for deployment overseas as replacements.  It became the home of the 75th Training Wing.

The 326th Fighter Group as assigned to the beas October 1943 and trained pilots for P-47 Thunderbolt fighters from January 1944 until the end of the war.  The based also housed German POWs and, after the war, became an Air Corps separation center from September 1945 until it was deactivated in May 1946.

In the early 1950s, Goldsboro Mayor Scott B. Berkely, a WWI  aviator and John Dortch Lewis led a campaign to reactivate the base and on April 1, 1956, Sewymour Johnson Air Force Base reopened.

And That's How It Came to Be.  --GreGen

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