War Bird Ace: The Great War Exploits of Capt. Field E. Kindley

Appendix B

Appendix B Airfields or Bases Named for Capt. Field E. Kindley Kindley Field—Philippines In 1921 the first airfield to bear the Kindley name was designated on the little island of Corregidor, commanding the entrance to Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands. It appropriately carried the Kindley name due to Field Kindley’s time spent in the Philippines and his father’s long career in education positions in those islands. Kindley Field was once “considered one of the most desirable stations to which Air Corps personnel in the Philippines could be assigned,” as it was “free of the mosquitoes found on the mainland and, being entirely surrounded by water, was cool at night.”1 Pilots assigned to Kindley Field flew airplanes and amphibians, since there wasn’t enough room on the little island for a regular landing field. The airplanes were hangared ashore, but were rolled or taxied into the water for take-off. The Air Corps officers flew missions for the Coast Artillery Corps, spotting the fire of the huge guns guarding the entrance to Manila Bay.2 Kindley Field in the Philippines was abandoned by the Air Service about 1930. The six or seven officers and their families and the supporting enlisted personnel to maintain three or four aircraft returned to the United States, and the station was then turned over to the Coast Artillery. The last commanding officer of the old Kindley Field was Lt. Col. Vincent J. Meloy.3 Appendix B | 159 Kindley Field/Kindley Air Force Base—Bermuda War Department orders designated Kindley Field on the British Atlantic island of Bermuda on 25 June 1941. Only the runway portion of a base called Fort Bell bore the Kindley name in the beginning. It was held fitting to honor World War I ace Capt. Field E. Kindley on the British possession due to Field’s wartime assignment with the RAF’s 65th Aero Squadron and his aerial successes with the 148th Aero Squadron under British control and in the British sector of the Western Front in 1918. Preceding this official Kindley Field designation was an American naval survey mission in October 1940, followed by arrival of U.S. engineers and architect-engineers in early 1941. All of this activity was part of the agreement reached by the United States and Great Britain in September 1940 concerning Western Hemisphere military bases for fifty U.S. Navy destroyers. By March 1941 construction, using thousands of civilian workers, had started on the military airfield. In April the Bermuda Base Command was activated, with the first U.S. troops arriving shortly thereafter on board the U.S. transport American Legion. The Americans were quartered in Bermuda’s Castle Harbour Hotel while the construction progressed. On 4 July 1941 the American flag was raised as runway pavement was laid. The first aircraft landed at Kindley Field on 15 December 1941, off the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Long Island, followed by the first land-based aircraft landing on 20 December, an RAF B-24 from Canada. The first Army Air Forces troops did not arrive until February 1942, and the first land-based operational aircraft to land was a B-17, which came in April. Wartime air operations at Kindley Field were mainly twofold: to serve as an air transport stop, especially when the more northerly route was hampered by weather, and to provide anti-submarine patrols by Kindley-based B-17s and B-24s, which continued to early 1944. During World War II Kindley Field served as a major “intermediate station and refueling stop for aircraft going between the United States and the war zones.” In 1943 there were some 200 landings, but by 1944 that number increased to 4,000. By January 1945 weather reconnaissance flights by B-25s also became an important operation. In January 1946 the Fort Bell name was dropped as U.S. Army ground troops had been returned to the United States and the entire base became known as Kindley Field and later as Kindley Air Force 160 | WAR BIRD ACE Base. During the 1950s and 1960s the base, at various times, had an air transport squadron, air rescue squadron, Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC) air refueling squadrons, and NASA space operations support. As the only airfield in Bermuda, the Kindley runways were also used by commercial airlines.4 Kindley Air...