Selman Field, named after a Navy Pilot, Lieutenant Augustus J. Selman,
U.S.N., a native of Monroe, LA, who died at Norfolk, VA, on November
28, 1921, of injuries
recieved in an airplane crash in the line of duty. . .
Selman Field was activated on June 15, 1942,
that is, given an offical
existence on paper. . . but on that date the field consisted only of
empty pastures. 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.
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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.
In May of 1942, Colonel Norris B. Harbold came to Monroe as project officer of the Army Air Forces Navigation
School which was to be located at Monroe. The plans were drawn, specifications made, and blueprints approved
in the six weeks that followed.
On June 15, the field was activated--given the paper status of a full-fledged military establishment--and Colonel
Harbold was named Commanding Officer.
Within three months the post was to be in full operation, with two schools transferred to Monroe and thousands of
navigation cadets undergoing the complex and exacting training of their specialty.
On August 8th, the first meal was served on the post in a partly completed mess hall. Forty enlisted men moved out
to the post that night and a living military organization began to grow within the gates.
On August 11, a motor convoy from Turner Field, Albany, GA, brought the cadres of the first squadrons of ground
troops to the post.
On August 15th, the AAF Pre-Flight School(Bombardier-Navigator), then under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas
V. Webb, was transferred to Selman Field from Maxwell Field, AL. The transfer, an example of superb organization,
was completed in one day. The day after the arrival of the staff, enlisted men and cadets of the Pre-Flight School,
classes were in session in improvised academic halls. The cadets had lost only one day of classes in moving nearly
400 miles--the day spent on the train.
The last elements of the Advanced Navigation School arrived on the night of September 14th, one day less than three
months after the activation date. Under the command of Colonel Harbold, a pioneer in the Army Air Forces navigation
training program, and later Colonel Earl L. Naiden, a veteran of the classroom and of combat in two wars, the field
continued to grow. Thus, Selman Field grew in size and in stature as the nation's only complete school where the
curriculum consisted of teaching picked young men how to "Get'em There and Get'em Back."
Historic Timeline
A Floating Airfield
The Silver Bracelet
Selman Field...circa 1943
Photo courtesy of Walter Kaffka
