Palmer Field

Front: Palmer Field, originally Marlboro Aviation School, operated here from Oct. 1941 to Nov. 1944 as a primary training facility for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Civilian flight instructors led cadets through a 9-week course in PT-17 Stearman biplanes. The 55th Army Air Corps Flying Training Detachment trained 6,410 pilots here; 4,769, or 73%, graduated. Reverse: Flight training ended here in late 1944, but the field briefly housed German POWs in 1945. In 1943 the field had been renamed for Capt. William White Palmer (1895-1934), Bennettsville native and World War I pilot. Palmer, in Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker’s 94th Aero Squadron, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Croix de Guerre for gallantry in aerial combat.