page_title: Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Horace S. Carswell Source: [1] Image taken while in US Army Air Corps Uniform during World War II as such this falls under the guidelines for Public Domain: PD US Army Air Corps... so unsure whether Army or Air Force now &#160;ALKIVAR™18px| 07:25, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
context_page_description: Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base includes Carswell Field, a military airbase located 5 nautical miles west of the central business district of Fort Worth, in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. This military airfield is operated by the United States Navy Reserve. It is located in the cities of Fort Worth, Westworth Village, and White Settlement in the western part of the Fort Worth urban area.
  NAS Fort Worth JRB is the successor to the former Naval Air Station Dallas and incorporates other Reserve commands and activities, primarily those of the Air Force Reserve, that were present on site when the installation was known as Carswell Air Force Base, a former Strategic Air Command facility later transferred to the Air Combat Command.
  Several United States Navy headquarters and operational units are based at NAS Fort Worth JRB, including Naval Air Reserve air wings and aviation squadrons, intelligence commands and Seabees.
  The Air Force Reserve Command's Tenth Air Force headquarters and its 301st Fighter Wing continue to be based at the installation, as well as the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard.
context_section_description: Carswell Air Force Base was named after Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr., USAAF (1916–1944). Major Carswell was returning from an attack on Japanese shipping in the South China Sea on 26 October 1944 when he attempted to save a crewmember whose parachute had been destroyed by flak. He remained at the controls of his crippled bomber and died while crash-landing the B-24 Liberator near Tungchen, China. The base was renamed in his honor on 29 January 1948.
  Carswell's origins date back to the early years of aviation.  After the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing invited the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to establish training fields in the southern United States where the warmer weather would be more conducive for flying year-round. In June, the War Department inspected 6 sites around Fort Worth, Texas which had been offered by the Chamber of Commerce.  In August the War Department signed leases with the RFC on 3 sites around Fort Worth. Knows as the Flying Triangle, these sites were Hicks Field (#1), Barron Field (#2), and Benbrook (later Carruthers) Field (#3) based on their locations.  In April 1918 these airfield were turned over to the Air Service, United States Army as training fields for American pilots.   Hundreds of pilots learned their basic and primary flying skills at these airfields in the Fort Worth area during the war.  They were closed in 1919 when the war ended.
  In 1940 the City of Fort Worth had filed an application with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), asking for a primary pilot training airfield for the Army Air Corps. In May, General Jacob E. Fickel visited Fort Worth on an inspection visit.   Fickel had learned to fly at Carruthers Field in 1918.  At the same time, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was trying to convince aircraft manufacturers to build an aircraft assembly plant in the area.  Consolidated Aircraft, wanting to build in the area, suggested to the Air Corps that they jointly build an airfield adjacent to the heavy bomber plant they wanted to build in Fort Worth.  On 16 June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to construct an airfield next to the Consolidated manufacturing plant.  The Army wanted to have the airfield ready quickly before the plant was put into production and construction of the "Lake Worth Bomber Plant Airport" began almost immediately.
caption: Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. (1916–1944)
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