THIS MONTH IN SCOTT AFB HISTORY: War Department leases 624 acres of farmland to build a flying training base for World War I
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany and formally entered World War I, which had been raging since 1914. Shortly after, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker endorsed an expanded role for aviation, as the Allies had urged upon the entrance of the United States into the Great War.
Area business and civic leaders on both sides of the Mississippi River invited the U.S. Army Signal Corps to consider sites near St. Louis for an aviation station. Across the river in Missouri, the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, primarily aerial expert and booster Maj. Albert Bond Lambert, and the Missouri Aeronautical Society, were instrumental in securing the government’s interest in a central Midwest field. On the Illinois side, the directors of the Greater Belleville Board of Trade spent considerable time and resources pursuing the project.
Maj. Benjamin Foulois, in his capacity as the sole member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Advisory Board, directed Capt. Clifton G. Edgar, responsible for site purchases, to locate the field in Illinois. Subsequently, Edgar, accompanied by Secretary Edward A. Daley of the Greater Belleville Board of Trade, Maj. Lambert, and a government health inspector, visited several sites offered by the Belleville board in late May 1917.
Two of the sites looked promising. One was in the lowlands and the other was situated on the bluffs approximately six miles northeast of Belleville in Shiloh Valley Township. Recognizing the drainage prob1ems associated with the lowland site, Edgar considered the second tract of land ideal. Located just off the Carlyle Road in a small flat valley near grassland along the Southern Railway, the proposed 640-acre site varied in contour no more than five feet.
After weeks of negotiations, Daley wired Belleville Board of Trade President, C. P. Tomlinson, from Washington with the good news: “Belleville gets aviation field. Lease made. Return tonight.”
On behalf of the Greater Belleville Board of Trade, Daley negotiated the lease for 623.992 acres with Edgar on June 14, 1917. By the terms of the contract, the seven landowners' received nearly $7,400. The lease could be renewed annually with the same conditions until June 30, 1920, or a purchase option for $122,896 could be exercised at any time.
Other provisions provided for the harvest or compensation of crops and secured options on much of the adjoining land for expansion. News of the Belleville site selection was well received and Scott Field became the second aviation station in Illinois, after Chanute Field near Rantoul.
Congress appropriated $10 million for construction of the new facility, which began in June, putting 2,000 carpenters and laborers to work (3,000 at the peak of construction). The government gave the Unit Construction Company of St. Louis 60 days to erect approximately 60 buildings, lay a mile-long railroad spur, and to level off an airfield with a 1,600 foot landing circle.
Construction was underway when the government announced, on July 20, 1917, that it would name the new field after Corporal Frank S. Scott, the first enlisted servicemember killed in a U.S. military aviation crash. Corporal Scott had died in the crash of a Wright Model B Flyer at College Park, Maryland less than five years before on Sept. 28, 1912.
The original Scott Field was typical of the many aviation fields built during World War I. The layout of the field followed a standard single-unit plan which Edgar and the renowned industrial engineer, Albert Kahn, hastily put together in May 1917 as the United States immersed itself in the war cause.
The success of this vast project was a striking testimony to the support that area residents gave to the United States’ military forces as the nation entered into World War I.
The primary mission of the new Scott Field was to train pilots and mechanics on the Standard J-1 and Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” trainers. The first flight from the new Scott Field was on Sept. 2, 1917 in a Standard J-1 trainer, flown by civilian instructor pilot, William H. Couch, with Maj. George E.A. Reinburg, Scott Field Commander.
In August 1917, the 11th and 21st Aero Squadrons arrived from Kelly Field, Texas, just as construction was completed. Reportedly the sight of the white, completed buildings caused many of the men of the 11th and 21st Aero Squadrons, who still had fresh memories of dust, cactus and canvas tents back at Kelly Field, Texas, to cheer as they marched up the street of the new Scott Field on Aug. 12, 1917.
Flying instruction began Sept. 11, 1917. Seventeen days later, pilot trainee Cadet Merrit O. While made the first solo flight. The field's first airplane accident occurred on Sept. 17, 1917, when instructor T.C. Jones’ Curtiss, No. 13, plunged suddenly during the descent, striking the ground with its nose and turning completely over. Fortunately, Jones was not seriously injured.
The cadets and student officers received only the rudiments of flying and airplane maintenance while at Scott Field. By the end of September 1917, flying instructions had progressed to the point where it was not uncommon for visitors to observe as many as 15 planes in the air at any given time.
Instructors maintained order by requiring all students to take off and land from a large circle, located in the center of the flying field. Twenty aviation students from the ground school at Champaign, Illinois, and two more squadrons—the 85th and 86th Aero Squadrons-from Kelly Field also arrived in late September, bringing the field's population close to its capacity of 1,000 men.
Gradually, the seven original Standard J-1s were replaced by the more efficient Curtiss JN-4 Jenny trainer. It was standard practice for units to organize and train at Scott Field before deploying to France.
During World War I, Scott Field produced more than 300 pilots and many ground units for service in France with the American Expeditionary Force. Among the units organized and trained at Scott Field were the 85th, 86th, 114th, 221st (recruited from the St. Louis area), and 242nd Aero Squadrons.
The Allies’ urgent need for aerial firepower and reconnaissance on the Western Front meant that the 1917 pilot training program at Scott Field had to be developed with all haste. Lacking the benefit of an extensive, formalized training program, each student was forced to pick up the basics of flying as best he could.
An Airplane Mechanics School was organized to give instruction on such subjects as aircraft remodeling and rebuilding, crew chief duties, motor repair, woodworking, propeller making, rigging, and aligning. An Enlisted Man's School and a Transportation School were also established.
In December 1917, with a mere four months of training, the 11th Aero Squadron, Day Bombardment, and 21st Aero Squadron, Pursuit, left for the Western Front. The first Scott Field flying season ended Dec. 18, 1917, with 24 cadets completing the reserve military aviator course and receiving their commissions as Second Lieutenants. Another 56 cadets finished their flying requirements at bases in France or at other fields in the U.S., possibly due to a shortage of aircraft and instructors at Scott Field.
In February 1918, five new aero squadrons were organized at Scott Field—the 284th (Service), 261st (Service), 262nd (Service), 263rd (Service), and the 114th (Service), recruited from the Belleville/East St. Louis/St. Louis region.
With the end of the war in November 1918, the future of Scott Field was in doubt. With no further need for flying training for the war, the majority of Scott Field personnel were either demobilized, transferred, or awaiting transfer orders and the base seemed to be among the many WW1 bases slated to close.
The mission of Scott Field was downgraded from large-scale flying training to a Flying School Detachment and storage site for demobilized equipment.
The March 22, 1919, issue of the Scott Field newspaper, “The Aerofoil,” even announced that it was suspending further publication, due to the lack of personnel at Scott Field. However, in the same issue of the newspaper, it was also reported that the War Department had decided to purchase Scott Field as a permanent station:
“Secretary E.A. Daley, of the Belleville Board of Trade, threw a bomb of pleasant surprise into the meeting of the Belleville Board of Trade last Tuesday evening, March 16, when he announced that he had received telegraphic instructions from the War Department to execute and forward leases for Scott Field property at the earliest possible moment. His announcement was received by ringing applause. The purchase price of Scott Field is about $120,000.00. Secretary Daley states this price was the lowest offered for any flying field in the United States, considering comparative benefits and advantages of location.”
The decision to purchase Scott Field was based on the field’s central location and low purchase price. The purchase gave Scott Field a future, but it still lacked a new mission.
Two years later, on June 28, 1921, the War Department revealed that the new mission at Scott Field would be as the U.S. Army Air Service Balloon and Airship School, ushering in one of Scott AFB’s most interesting historical chapters and resulting in tremendous expansion of the facility.
This story was originally published June 10, 2018 at 12:06 PM with the headline "THIS MONTH IN SCOTT AFB HISTORY: War Department leases 624 acres of farmland to build a flying training base for World War I."