Fort Worth Army Air Field
Westworth Village, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By January 1941, negotiations between Fort Worth civic advocates, led by Amon G. Carter, and the U.S. Army yielded an agreement to construct an aircraft plant near the city to build B-24 Liberator bombers. Legislation later authorized the creation of a landing field adjacent to the completed Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation Plant No. 4 which became Tarrant Field/Tarrant Field Airdrome. Three months after the U.S. joined World War II, the plant was in operation and the Army moved forward to create an Air Base to utilize this proximity between sites to facilitate B-24 crew training. This air base opened in August 1942 and was named Fort Worth Army Air Field (FWAAF) in May 1943, training more than 4,000 pilots between 1942 and 1944. It allowed the city to contribute substantially to victory for the U.S. and Allied Powers. In late January 1948, FWAAF was renamed Carswell Air Force Base in honor of Fort Worth native and Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. The site became a key U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Cold War, serving as a highly visible symbol of nuclear deterrence and force projection. The site was the first SAC base to be equipped with the Fort Worth-produced B-36 Peacemaker bomber and transitioned by 1959 to the legendary B-52 Stratofortress bomber. In 1972, B-52s stationed here participated in the most powerful SAC campaign of the Vietnam War, Operation Linebacker II. After the end of the Cold War, Carswell AFB closed in September 1993. In October 1994, the site reopened as Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, supporting active duty and reserve units in the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, and the Texas Air National Guard. This base greatly aided training and support of the U.S. Military during the Global War on Terrorism and continues a long tradition of professional excellence in the defense of the Nation. (2016)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1941, Fort Worth boosters led by Amon G. Carter secured an aircraft plant to build B-24 Liberator bombers, and the Army opened an adjoining airfield that in 1943 became Fort Worth Army Air Field, training more than 4,000 pilots during World War II. Renamed Carswell Air Force Base in 1948 for hometown Medal of Honor pilot Horace S. Carswell, Jr., it became a front-line Strategic Air Command base of the Cold War—home first to the giant B-36 Peacemaker and then the B-52, whose crews flew the Vietnam War's Operation Linebacker II in 1972. After the base closed in 1993 it reopened as a Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base.
Why it matters
The field's long arc from B-24 trainer to nuclear-deterrent bomber base tracks Fort Worth's central role in American air power across World War II, the Cold War, and beyond.
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Related people
- · Amon G. Carter
- · Horace S. Carswell, Jr.
Related events
- · World War II
- · Cold War
- · Operation Linebacker II
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Amon G. Carter
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Amon G. Carter rose from a hardscrabble Wise County boyhood and odd jobs to become the most influential booster Fort Worth ever had. As publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — the largest-circulation paper in Texas for decades — he wielded the press, the new medium of radio (WBAP), and a fortune in oil to promote his city and all of West Texas. An aviation enthusiast, he helped lure the aircraft industry to the area, and he poured his wealth into philanthropy, notably founding the Amon Carter Museum.
Commercial Horticulture in Euless
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Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr.
Westworth Village, TX
A Fort Worth athlete who lettered in football and baseball at TCU, Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr., enlisted as a flying cadet in 1940 and earned his wings just before the United States entered World War II. Commanding radar-equipped B-24 bombers from Liuchow, China, he led a night attack on a Japanese convoy over the South China Sea on October 26, 1944. His plane crippled by anti-aircraft fire, Carswell nursed it toward the coast and ordered his crew to bail out—then stayed with the aircraft when two men could not jump, dying as it crashed into a mountainside. He received a posthumous Medal of Honor.
Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation Plant No. 4
Fort Worth, TX
As the United States geared up for World War II, the War Department pushed for brand-new defense plants, and Fort Worth's Chamber of Commerce landed one by courting Consolidated Vultee (Convair). Ground broke here in April 1941, and the first B-24 Liberator rolled off the line just a year later—100 days ahead of schedule. At peak, 32,000 workers built more than 3,000 heavy bombers, along with C-87 transports and later B-32 Dominators, powering the Allied air campaign.