Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina
Seymour Johnson AFB was established five months after the United States entered World War II when the War Department approved the establishment of a technical school two miles southeast of Goldsboro. Seymour Johnson Field was activated on June 12, 1942, as Headquarters, Technical School, Army Air Forces Technical Training Command.
The base is named in honor of U.S. Navy Lt. Seymour A. Johnson, a native of Goldsboro. Johnson, a test pilot, was killed in an aircraft crash near Norbeck, Md., March 5, 1941.
In June 1943, a secondary mission was added which included preparation of officers and men for overseas duty. The unit was known as the Provisional Overseas Replacement Training Center.
Seymour Johnson Field received a third mission in September 1943: to provide basic military training for cadets preparing to become technical officers in the Army Air Corps. The 75th Training Wing was established to conduct the program through its Aviation Cadet Pre-Training la k- School.
The 326th Fighter Group arrived in October 1943 and in January 1944 began training replacement pilots for P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft. In April of that year, basic training of P-47 pilots became the primary mission of Seymour Johnson Field.
The 326th Fighter Group arrived in October 1943 and in January 1944 began training replacement pilots for P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft. In April of that year, basic training of P-47 pilots became the primary mission of Seymour Johnson Field.
At the end of WWII in Europe, Seymour Johnson was designated as a central assembly station for processing and training troops being reassigned in the continental United States and Pacific theater of operations. This function was discontinued in September 1945 and the field became an Army-Air Force Separation Center.
Seymour Johnson Field was deactivated in May 1946.
In late 1952, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived and demolished old buildings and began construction of new ones. Led by Goldsboro mayor Scott B. Berkeley Sr., local community leaders began a campaign to have the installation reopened. The efforts were successful, and on April 1, 1956, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was reactivated as a Tactical Air Command base. Three months later, the 83rd Fighter-Day Wing was assigned to the base as the primary unit. The 4th Fighter Wing replaced the 83rd on Dec. 8, 1957.
Since reopening, the base has been home to B-52 bombers, KC-10 and KC-135 tankers from Strategic Air Command and F-4 and F-16 fighters from the Michigan Air National Guard.
Seymour Johnson AFB was annexed by the city of Goldsboro on Feb. 7, 1977. Construction of a minimum-security Federal Prison facility was completed in 1991. Inmates at the facility supplement the work force, helping to maintain the base grounds.
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., is named in honor of Navy Lt. Seymour A. Johnson, a Goldsboro native who died in an airplane crash near Norbeck, Md., on March 5, 1941.
Lieutenant Johnson was born in Goldsboro on Feb. 15, 1904, and was the son of Dr. John N. and Lilly Johnson of Goldsboro. He graduated from Goldsboro High School in 1920 and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for three years before entering the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.
After graduating from the academy, Lieutenant Johnson was commissioned as an ensign and entered flight training at Pensacola, Fla. He received his pilot wings in 1929. After completing flight training, he served as a pilot aboard battleships and aircraft carriers.
In 1937 he volunteered for duty as a test pilot, an assignment usually lasting two years. He was assigned to Anacostia Naval Air Station beginning in 1938 and served as a test pilot until his final mission on March 5, 1941. Lieutenant Johnson reported that he was at 43,000 feet and was getting low on oxygen. His Grumman F4F-3 fighter plane crashed near Norbeck, Md., and his death was attributed to a lack of oxygen at high altitude. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
The lieutenant had more than 4,000 hours in a variety of Naval and Grumman Aircraft Corporation aircraft. He had been selected for promotion to commander in June 1941.
In August 1940 the War Department designated the airport near Goldsboro as essential to national defense. In December 1940, $168,811 was authorized for the construction of a U.S. Army Air Corps Technical Training School. Local officials began working to have the field named in honor of Lieutenant Johnson.
The name became official on Oct. 30, 1942, when Congressman Graham H. Barden informed the Goldsboro News-Argus that "the Army Air Forces Technical Training School in Goldsboro had been named Seymour Johnson Field."
Note: Seymour Johnson is the only Air Force base named in honor of a naval officer.
(Some of the information for this biography was taken from the Goldsboro News-Argus edition of October 3, 1997.)