Majors Army Airfield

The Handbook of Texas dates Majors Field's opening to June 26, 1942, where the plaque says fully operational on January 5, 1943, and credits Sam Rayburn's influence and a Rotary Club airport plan for the choice. After the war the property reverted to Greenville, which leased it to Temco to rebuild aircraft. The company began in September 1951 with 400 workers, 2,200 in 1960, and after a 1961 merger Ling-Temco-Vought employed 4,600. The mid-1970s sale to E-Systems kept it the city's largest employer. The Handbook calls the field the center of local industry.

What the plaque says

Majors Army Airfield In 1941 the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) informed Greenville officials that the city would receive Federal assistance to build a civilian airport as part of the country's preparation for possible entry into World War II. In April 1941 U. S. Congressman Sam Rayburn notified Hunt County that the civilian airport project would become part of a $5 million Army Airforce training base housing 3,000 to 4,000 personnel and 300 airplanes. The base was named for Lt. Truett Majors, the first pilot from Hunt County killed in action in World War II. Construction of the base and three auxiliary airfields in the county boosted the local economy and provided employment for thousands of area residents. The base became fully operational on January 5, 1943. Majors Army Airfield provided cadet pilots with preflight and primary training. When not exercising, studying, or training in BT-13s and P-47s the cadets visited Greenville for recreation and to socialize with local citizens. In addition to U. S. Army Air Corps pilots, companies of \Women's Army Corps members, Royal Air Force pilots, and Mexican Air Force pilots were trained here. The base became an advanced training center before being deactivated on July 15, 1945. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 4.2 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 24 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 27 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 31 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• William Lane — 1.6 mi
• Center Point Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — 2.1 mi
• Wesley United Methodist Church — 3.6 mi
• Wesley College Administration Building — 3.8 mi