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Tattered books shed light on Scott's history

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Christie Putz
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Retired Army Maj. Gen. Neal Creighton travelled to Scott April 9 with one mission in mind: deliver books that once belonged to his father back to their original home. 

His father, Army Air Corps Col. Neal Creighton, commanded the base from January 1945 to December 1946 and upon his retirement at Scott Field received three albums prepared by his staff containing a chronology of news clippings, photographs, certificates and other memorabilia spanning his years spent as commander. 

The books, until now, have been packed away in his Virginia home, waiting to find a home of their own. Mr. Creighton said he couldn't think of a better place than here. 

"By giving them back to the base they once again become a piece of history--here everyone can have access to them, not just our family," he said. "I am sure they will be put to better use and the information will be better preserved here than if we kept them in the family." 

For the wing historian, that translated to a treasure trove of information to browse through. 

"This really is a one-of-a-kind collection," said Frederick Smith, 375th Airlift Wing historian. "Everything in here goes right along with what we already knew, but there are also a lot of photos of events that we previously had very few images of." 

For example, one of the books contains several captioned photos of Women in the Air Force, or WAFs for short, stationed at Scott. They were housed near the current home of the Heritage Airpark, outside what is now the Shiloh Gate. 

"We have old maps, stories and some photos, but this collection provides us with more photos depicting their activities and contributions to Scott Field," said Mr. Smith. "We didn't have a lot of Scott WAF images from that period." 

Other finds include photos of Scott's all-black units training, a visit by Hap Arnold, a memorial tribute to President Roosevelt and many images of everyday Scott Field life as World War II was drawing to an end. 

The books have weathered with time, but many of Mr. Creighton's memories of Scott remain vivid. 

One-third of his father's 30-year career was spent at Scott, and Mr. Creighton lived here with his father from 1934-1937. Both he and his sister attended schools in Belleville.
During his father's command tour, he lived in North Carolina, but said he returned often.
"I remember visiting my father and hearing many late night discussions about funding to keep the base open," he said. 

Many of these talks were with Congressman Melvin Price, a long-time supporter of the base whose name can still be found on plaques inside some of Scott's older buildings. 

Mr. Smith added that throughout Scott's history, trend has shown that following each major war there have been battles to keep the base open. The donated books provide documentation of this particular fight through preserved clippings from the Broadcaster, Scott's military newspaper at the time, and the local Belleville News Democrat. 

Other memories were more lighthearted. 

"One of the greatest thrills was watching the old airships land," said Mr. Creighton. "They would get all the people out there with their ropes to stop the balloon. The dogs would all be out there chasing them. It was a sight." 

From 1921-1937, Scott served as the nation's first inland port for these Lighter Than Air aircraft. He remembers the hangar that "loomed" over the flat landscape--reportedly big enough to contain 100,000 people in formation, the approximate size of the U.S. Army at the time. 

Many memories and stories also included some of his father's long-time friends, including retired Generals Ira Eaker and Carl Spaatz, both of whom appear frequently throughout the albums. 

The books themselves will be stored in the historian archives, along with the thousands of other files maintained in the rolling filing cabinets inside the wing headquarters building. Due to constantly changing technology, Mr. Smith said, hardcopy is still the best way to go versus digitizing. 

"What works as far as resolution and file size today may not work much farther into the future," he said. "Just as a three megabyte file a decade ago would have been huge, but today is rather small." 

Currently, only about 10 percent of the wing's historical files are digitized. 

For frequent requests and common use, Mr. Smith has made photocopies of several pages from this new collection. The rest of the information will go into a database created and maintained by Mr. Smith, which is a quick reference to the hardcopy files. 

According to Mr. Creighton, the other years of Colonel Creighton's military memorabilia are housed in the 8th Air Force museum in Savannah, Ga., where he served as the headquarters commandant prior to his assignment at Scott.