Taylor Field (Airfield)

For other airfields with this name, see Taylor Field (disambiguation).

Taylor Field Gunter Auxiliary Airfield #5
Montgomery, Alabama
300px A 1918 aerial view looking northwest along the amazing number of hangars (16 of them) at Taylor Field
Taylor Field
Coordinates
Type	Pilot training airfield
Site information
Controlled by	Air Service, United States Army   United States Army Air Forces
Condition	Agricultural area
Site history
Built	1917
In use	1917–1946
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Garrison information
Garrison	Training Section, Air Service (World War I) Army Air Force Training Command (World War I)

Taylor Field is a closed military airfield located 11 miles east-southeast of Montgomery, Alabama. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917.

History

World War I

The property leased by the War Department consisted of 800 acres of land for which the government paid $4,000 a year as rent, with an option of purchase for $32,000. The land was leased 16 November 1917. It was the first military flying facility in Alabama. The base was named Taylor Field, being named after Captain Ralph L. Taylor, of Stamford, Connecticut, who was commissioned a Captain in the Nebraska National Guard Air Service on 3 May 1917, and ordered to active duty at Mineola Field (later Roosevelt Field), New York, on 23 May 1917. Captain Taylor was an aviation instructor at Mineola field, and was killed in an accident on 2 August 1917. Four service squadrons 128, 129, 131 and 193 arrived at the Field by April 16, 1918. In addition there was the usual complement of quartermaster and sanitary and medical detachments. The Air Service used Taylor Field as a primary flight school with an eight-week course. The maximum capacity was 300 students. It had sixteen hangars, repair shops, warehouses, barracks, a hospital and nearly 200 Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" and De Havilland DH-4 "Gypsy Month" trainers. Aircraft assigned to the field were serviced by the Aviation Repair Depot, Montgomery, Alabama

Active flying began 2 May 1918. Major E. M. Hoffman, Signal Corps was the first officer in charge of the Flying Field. He was succeeded by 2nd Lt. Charles N. Monteith, July 9, 1918, he in turn on October 2, 1918, was succeeded by 2nd Lt. Kenneth G. Fraser. The Field graduated 139 cadets. The total number of flying time 20,619 hours, and 27 minutes.

Training units assigned to Taylor Field were:

• Post Headquarters, Taylor Field - October 1919
• 128th Aero Squadron, April 1918

Re-designated as Squadron "A", July–November 1918

• 131st Aero Squadron, March 1918

Re-designated as Squadron "B", July–November 1918

• 193d Aero Squadron, March 1918

Re-designated as Squadron "C", July–November 1918

• 129th Aero Squadron, April 1918

Re-designated as Squadron "D", July–November 1918

• Flying School Detachment (Consolidation of Squadrons A-D), November 1918-November 1919

The flying school trained One Hundred and thirty-nine pilots in eight-week courses. Some deployed and fought in combat on the Western Front in France during World War I.

The airfield closed in April 1919.

World War II

File:Taylor Field Alabama 1945.jpg

Taylor Field in 1945. Note some of the World War I facilities remaining for use as an auxiliary of Gunter AAF.

It was reopened as Gunter Auxiliary Airfield #5 during World War II and was used as an auxiliary landing field for the flight school at Gunter Army Airfield. After the war, it was closed in July 1946.

Post World War II

After World War II, the airfield was sold off to private owners and the remaining structures were dismantled. All the former hangars and structures of the military airfield have been torn down, though the remnants of a swimming pool remain as seen in aerial photos. There is an Alabama historical marker located on the south side of Ray Thorington Road across from Foxchase Dr. A subdivision named Avalon was developed in 2005 along the northwest border of the airfield's former location appx 200 yds east of this marker & crosses over the former SW-to-NE runway, and a dirt road to the east of Avalon runs along the same path as the former main entrance to the hangars and a few homes were built along the east side of it in the 1950s. Lancelot Dr in Avalon crosses over the old main airfield road near where the dirt road terminates.

See also

• Alabama World War II Army Airfields
• List of Training Section Air Service airfields

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Taylor Field