Pratt Army Air Field WW II 1943 - 1945 by Dorotha Giannangelo (2002)
This brief history of the Pratt Army Air Field was written in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Field and the establishment of a B-29 All Veterans Memorial in Pratt County Kansas.
PAAF Cover
Meet The Author
The author of this book is a lady of many talents and interests. Dorotha Giannangelo has, since 1960, spent many hours researching historical events in her home town of Pratt, Pratt County, Kansas. Much of what she has researched has been published in numerous articles and five books. She wrote a history of the first one-hundred years of the Pratt Public Schools, the development of the system of eighteen public parks in Pratt, the individual history of eighty-three rural schools in Pratt County, a collection of forty stories of interesting people, events, and buildings in Pratt, and this, the story of the "greatest event in the County's history", the Pratt Army Air Field of WW II.
She had a special interest in writing this history because "she was there" and heard the roar of the B-29's overhead. She served as a secretary and a hospital Grey Lady during breaks in her studies at the University of Iowa. We are proud to present to you her fine documentation of the P.A.A.F.
A few sample Chapters are transcribed here, but if you want to buy a copy of this entire booklet, email your request to the Pratt County Historical Museum Curator.
Note: The Booklet is available for viewing at the Pratt County Historical Museum.
Transcriptions were made by Milt Martin July/August, 2007.
Please select a chapter to read in its entirety:
Chapter 6 The Opening
Did you ever wonder why some people referred to the P.A.A.F. as a Base and others as a Field? Both are correct.
On February 9, 1943, it was announced that, "the installation will no longer have the status of a satellite field, but is expected to have the facilities of a full-sized Army Air Base."
Chapter 11 On The Base
As bombs continued to be dropped on Japan and Japanese held islands in the Pacific additional B-29 crews were being trained in Kansas. Even before the departure of one Bomb Group additional troops and personnel arrived and began final preparation for combat. Training was continuous as 1943 moved into 1944 and 1945. Life on the Base took on many of the characteristics of a small city.
Chapter 18 Lasting Effects
No event in modern history changed the entire world as did the Second World War. Everything changed, and every human being was altered in some manner. We became a global society, and the realization of that fact was never before so dramatic.