Barron Field

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Barron Field, out in Tarrant County. Now, the Fort Worth area during World War One wasn't just cattle and rail yards, it was one of the busiest patches of sky in the whole country. The Army needed pilots, and it needed them fast.

So they built not one, not two, but three flight training centers right there in the area. This is the story of one of them. In November of 1917, workers broke ground on this very site and put up Taliaferro Field Number Two.

That's what they called it at first. And the first flyers to train here weren't American boys at all, they were Canadian cadets, cutting through that North Texas sky before the U.S. military units arrived to take over in April of 1918. Then, in May of that same year, the facility got a new name.

They renamed it Barron Field, for Cadet Robert J. Barron, who had been killed at another flying school. Not here.

Somewhere else. And yet it's his name that stayed on this land. There's something that sits quiet and heavy in that.

At its peak, Barron Field sprawled across more than six hundred acres. It housed as many as a hundred and fifty officers and nine hundred enlisted men. That's a small city, when you think about it, a city built entirely around the business of sending young men into the air and, eventually, across an ocean.

And they did exactly that. Before the guns went silent on November 11th, 1918, Barron Field had sent six Air Squadrons all the way to France. The war ended.

The need faded. The training facility closed in 1921. Six hundred acres of purpose, and almost all of it eventually swallowed back up by time.

Almost all of it. Today, only the munitions building remains, standing out here like it's still keeping watch, the last thing left to mark what once was.

What the marker says

One of three World War I fight training centers in the Ft. Worth area, Taliaferro Field No. 2 was built on this site in Nov. 1917. First used by Canadian cadets, it was occupied in April 1918 by American military units. In May, the facility was renamed Barron Field for Cadet Robert J. Barron, who was killed at another flying school. Covering over 600 acres, the camp housed as many as 150 officers and 900 enlisted men. Barron Field sent six Air Squadrons to France before the war ended, Nov. 11, 1918. The training facility closed in 1921, and today only the munitions building remains. (1976)