Nebraskans on the Front Lines
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Nebraska's Army Airfields

Harvard Nebraska Air Base Housing
The housing conditions at the air base at Harvard, Nebraska, were not the most luxurious.
Nebraska's geography was responsible for one of the major economic and social developments of the war. From border to border, the Army built a dozen air bases — far from the coasts. Ainsworth, Alliance, Bruning, Fairmont, Fort Crook, Grand Island, Harvard, Kearney, Lincoln, McCook, Scottsbluff, and Scribner all got air bases or satellite airfields during World War II.

Even before the declaration of war, in September 1940, President Roosevelt's Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense (NDAC) was looking for potential army airfield sites in the Midwestern United States. The commission’s publication reported the Atlantic and Pacific coasts were vulnerable to air attacks. The area between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains was a natural "Citadel of Defense" where new defense manufacturing plants and military installations should be concentrated. Thus, Nebraska was targeted for sites suitable for construction of Army Air Force airfields.

Nebraska was a favored because it has excellent, year-round flying conditions. The sparsely populated land made ideal locations for gunnery, bombing, and training ranges. The federal government established the following guidelines for selecting sites for airfields:

  • level terrain free of natural and manmade obstructions

  • a mild climate with an abundance of clear weather flying days

  • rural sites to reduce the cost of real estate

  • reliable public utilities

  • access to surface transportation routes such as paved highways and major railroads

  • a large labor pool for constructing and maintaining the Airfields
"It is truly an amazing sight to see these Army air bases suddenly rise into view from farms, cattle ranges, or hayflats. As one drives across the state, there first appears an orange and black checkerboard water tank rising above the horizon. Then the blue-green glass windows of a control tower come into sight. Hangars housing big war birds are seen, their arched domes across the sky."
     — Lt. Howard J. Otis, Air Force Public Relations Officer, July 1943.

With all of the air activity in the state, there were bound to be accidents. Many planes crashed on training flights. Fort McPherson National Cemetery near North Platte has several common graves with single headstones paying homage to airmen killed in crashes on Nebraska soil.

"Another vivid memory I have is of watching a plane, a B-17, in the sky one August day in 1943 and seeing it nose dive to the earth and burst into flame. The plane crash was near Wood River, Nebraska. All eight men aboard were killed."
     — Rosalie Frazell Lippincott, Shelton teacher.