The Handbook of Texas JONES FIELD. Jones Field is a county airfield
at
Bonham, the Fannin county seat. Originally the field served as a
flight-training center for army pilots during World War II.qv The federal
contract authorizing
the building of the base was approved on June 25, 1941. Construction
began on
July 1 and was completed in mid-September. The contract established
the Bonham Aviation School as the civilian contractor for the 302d Squadron
of the United
States Army Air Force.
The first cadets arrived on October 1, 1941, and trained
in Fairchild PT-19s.
Over the next few years more than 5,000 pilots received flight instruction
under group commanders at Jones under Ladd
Moore and Harry A. Welter. Five months after the surrender of Germany,
the army deactivated Jones Field. For a number of years the airstrip remained
abandoned. By the early 1960s, however, the 3,000-foot runway had once
again become the site for flight training, this time for civilian pilots.
Renamed Jones Airport, the airstrip also served as the home for transit
aircraft and local pilots involved in spraying operations. An average twenty-three
planes were kept at the airport in 1976.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bonham Daily Favorite, February 29, 1976. Fannin County
Folks and Facts (Dallas: Taylor, 1977). David Minor Recommended
citation: "JONES FIELD." The Handbook of Texas Online.
Notes on Ladnor
Maurice Moore
"My father left Bonham and went overseas. He flew "The Hump" protecting
the
Burma Road, and followed that career with free-lance pilot training
to the
governments of India, Burma, and Indonesia. He then died suddenly
at age
41, ironically in Bonham. He was just passing though there to see
some
friends/descends of a brother of Sam Rayburn's. (A Charles Rayburn)
He got
sick and checked into the SB Allen Hospital, and died a couple of
days
later."Lad Moore son of
Ladnor Maurice Moore
See Homepage of the China National
Aviation Corporation