Dad completed his Navigation Training in LA.
Selman Army Airfield
The military base was built at the site of a small Monroe, Louisiana civil airport constructed in the 1930s named "Selman Airport", which was named after a Navy Pilot, Lieutenant Augustus J. Selman, a native of Monroe, LA, who died at Norfolk, Virginia, on November 28, 1921, of injuries received in an airplane crash in the line of duty. The airport housed a small Delta Airlines terminal serving regular flights, a weather station, a regional center of Delta Crop Dusting (a large hangar and maintenance facility, the number of aircraft varying with the season) and a two-plane private aviation flight school.
Selman Army Airfield construction was activated on June 15, 1942, that is, given an official existence on paper. Land construction began soon after June 15th. On August 15th Pre-Flight (B-N) was transferred here from Maxwell Field, AL. A month later the Advanced Navigation School arrived here from Turner Field, GA. Selman Field was in full operation three months after starting from scratch. Selman Field was the only complete navigation training station in the country. Of the hundreds of fields that were operated by the Army Air Forces, it was only at Selman that a cadet could get his entire training-- pre-flight and advanced--and wind up with a commission and navigators wings without ever leaving the field.
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Selman Army Airfield
The military base was built at the site of a small Monroe, Louisiana civil airport constructed in the 1930s named "Selman Airport", which was named after a Navy Pilot, Lieutenant Augustus J. Selman, a native of Monroe, LA, who died at Norfolk, Virginia, on November 28, 1921, of injuries received in an airplane crash in the line of duty. The airport housed a small Delta Airlines terminal serving regular flights, a weather station, a regional center of Delta Crop Dusting (a large hangar and maintenance facility, the number of aircraft varying with the season) and a two-plane private aviation flight school.
Selman Army Airfield construction was activated on June 15, 1942, that is, given an official existence on paper. Land construction began soon after June 15th. On August 15th Pre-Flight (B-N) was transferred here from Maxwell Field, AL. A month later the Advanced Navigation School arrived here from Turner Field, GA. Selman Field was in full operation three months after starting from scratch. Selman Field was the only complete navigation training station in the country. Of the hundreds of fields that were operated by the Army Air Forces, it was only at Selman that a cadet could get his entire training-- pre-flight and advanced--and wind up with a commission and navigators wings without ever leaving the field.
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