Arsenal of Defense: Fort Worth's Miltary Legacy

Chapter 2 World War I: Three Air Fields

Chapter 2 World War I: Three Air Fields Ben E. Keith, who continued to serve as president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce in 1917, wanted to bring military money into the city. With Louis J. Wortham, an editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a former state legislator, Keith traveled to Washington, D.C., early in the year to confer with the secretary of war. He wanted to convince military officials that Fort Worth possessed plenty of anything they might need: railroads, work force, mild climate, and food.1 Keith would have known about food supply, for not only did Fort Worth have the stockyards, in 1906 he began driving a truck for local produce company Harkrider-Morrison. By 1918 Keith would rise to controlling partner and continue to build the business under the name Ben E. Keith Company, using the latest technology in food wholesaling. By 2006, it would rank as the ninth largest broad line food distributor in the United States.2 In Washington, Keith saw Benjamin D. Foulois, the military man for whom he had organized the banquet in Fort Worth two years earlier, and Keith again gave a dinner for him. Foulois, now a major, had just returned from accompanying General John J. Pershing to Mexico with the First Aero Squadron. Keith told Foulois about his mission to bring military installations to Fort Worth. At dinner Foulois wrote on a piece of paper: “Do what you can for this Texan,” and at some later point presented Keith and the note to Brigadier-General Cuthbert G. “Frog” Hoare, commander of the Royal Flying Corps Canada, which had been founded in April 1912. In early 1917, General Hoare was having problems recruiting enough Canadians for pilot training, and so welcomed Americans. Because the Canadian winter allowed fewer flying days than would a location in the southern United States, Hoare formulated a plan that he presented to Brigadier-General George O. Squier, Chief Signal Officer, U.S. Army, the commander of the American Air Service. Squier told Hoare that he needed instructors for the military flying schools the U.S. Army wanted to open. The two men reached an agreement for Canadians to train one hundred U.S. cadets to fly if a winter camp and airplanes were made available in the United States. 21 World War I: Three Air Fields A Royal Flying Corps Canada wing would also move south for the winter . The two generals obtained all the necessary permissions, and General Hoare returned to Washington in June to finalize plans. Both generals signed the agreement, which was ratified by the U.S. War Department and the British War Office in June 1917. The final plan actually included a second Canadian wing.3 The reciprocal agreement stipulated that the RFC would train ten squadrons for the U.S. Signal Corps. This meant 300 pilots, 144 other flying officers, 20 administrative and equipment officers, and approximately 2,000 mechanics.The Americans would begin their training in Canada and complete it in the United States.The RFC would provide all equipment for the Canadian part of the training, and the U.S. Army would supply equipment for training that took place in the United States. Each service would provide pay, clothing, and transportation for its own soldiers, and draw raThis Tarrant County map features the three Canadian-American pilot training fields that were located north, south, and southwest of Fort Worth called Taliaferro (Hicks), Barron, and Carruthers Fields, respectively. Map courtesy Harold Langley. arsenal of defense 22 tions to be repaid while in the other’s country. As a result, 1,400 U.S. cadets traveled to Canada in July 1917 to begin flight training.4 According to the final agreement, the United States would provide three airfields in the southern United States instead of the one originally proposed . General Hoare and his staff began inspecting cities in Florida and Texas for possible sites. In Texas they considered Dallas, Midland, Wichita Falls, Austin, Waco, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. General Hoare liked San Antonio, but U.S. officials warned him that a labor shortage there might prove to be a problem. The Canadian general was said to have only “reluctantly” accepted Fort Worth over San Antonio.5 All three airfields were established in small sparsely populated suburbs surrounding Fort Worth: Hicks, Everman, and Benbrook. Hicks (near present Saginaw) took its name from Hicks Station...