Lawrence County Airport

is a county-owned, public-use airport located convert|2|NM|km|0|lk=on northeast of the central business district of Courtland, a city in Lawrence County, Alabama, United States.

Facilities and aircraft

Lawrence County Airport covers an area of 350 acres (142 ha) which contains two concrete paved runways designated 13/31 and 17/35, each measuring 5,000 x 150 ft (1,524 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending June 15, 2006, the airport had 11,900 aircraft operations, an average of 32 per day: 92% general aviation and 8% military.

History

The area was acquired starting in 1942 and the airport was opened in 1944 as as Courtland Army Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a training base during World War II. Courtland was assiged to the Southeast Training Center of the Army Air Force Training Command. It was commanded by the 446th Army Air Force Base Unit.

The school flew Vultee BT-13s there in Air Cadet basic flight school, there was a B-24 4-engine school, and a school for transition from B-24s to B-29s school opened up in early 1945. Personnel were required to fire pistols or carbines for marksmanship training and practice gas attack drills. The chemical agents used during training were tear gas, mustard agent, chlorine gas, incendiary and smoke munitions.

At the end of the war the airfield was determined to be excess by the War Department in 1946 and was excessed. The site was returned to the State of Alabama by Quitclaim Deed in 1948.

Today, most everything but the runway, and several concrete slabs with 3 or 4 wide concrete steps are gone now. A golf course hugs the northeast to west perimeter. [Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN 1575100517]

See also

* Alabama World War II Army Airfields

References

External links

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