Hallowed Ground

Hallowed Ground. . , During the years 1930 and 1931 the Department of Defense built a network of emergency airfields for use by commercial aviation. During world war two the government converted many of them to military use. , This is the location of Bagdad Auxiliary Field. The airfield consisted of two unpaved runways in an "L" pattern. Each runway was 3960 feet in length. The airfield had a beacon for nighttime identification and underground fuel storage. , On April 9, 1942, just four short months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a USAAF AT-7 navigator was on a navigational training exercise with five crew members from Mather Field in Sacramento CA to Tucson AZ. , Around 8:40 PM, residents in the small community of Bagdad could hear an aircraft approaching and they were able to see its wingtip lights. At the last minute residents said they could hear the radial engines on the aircraft accelerate. The aircraft impacted the desert, short of the runway. The landing gear was torn from the aircraft as it cartwheeled across the desert for 250 yards. Wreckage was scattered over a quarter mile. , No official cause of the crash was determined, but pilot disorientation was suspected. , The following service members gave their lives here: , 1st Lieutenant Richard W Ford (Pilot) , 2nd Lieutenant William W Hovey (Co-Pilot) , 2nd Lieutenant Bryon F Vandenberg (Navigator/Instructor) , Aviation Cadet Robert A Baker (Student) , Aviation Cadet Leonard H Balliff (Student)