Ross Field ( airfield ) Ross Field is a former World War I military airfield , located south - southwest of Arcadia , California . It was one of thirty - two Air Service , United States Army training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917 . It operated as a training field between 1918 until 1919 . History . World War I . In the early part of June 1918 , the Army established an airfield at Arcadia , on the site of the Santa Anita Race Track . it was commanded by Col . W . M . Hensley . Within days , two Balloon Companies from Camp John Wise , San Antonio , Texas ; three Balloon Companies from Fort Omaha , Nebraska ; and the men of two Balloon Companies from Kelly Field , Texas , arrived and erected a tent camp . Training began quickly and balloons were in the air by the end of June . The hydrogen plant to produce the gas needed to fill the balloons was on line by the end of July . By the end of summer most of the building construction had been completed . In the rush to get an Army Balloon School on the west coast , the Signal Corps did not consider the Santa Ana winds , which blew in from the desert . These winds created much havoc with the aerial observation , ground training , and balloon handling . They were limited as to how high the balloons could be flown on those very windy days . In order to simulate high altitude observations , they would truck the officers to a camp site at the top of Mt . Wilson to observe live artillery fire from the field below the mountain . The altitude of Mt . Wilson was similar to that of being in a balloon basket . but without the handling issues caused by high winds . The school was named in November , after Lt . Cleo J . Ross , Army ' s Air Service : an observer with the 8th Balloon Company . On 26 September 1918 , near Brabant , France : while aloft with Lt . Herbert Hudnut , they were attacked by a German Fokker pursuit aircraft , and their balloon burst into flames . Lt . Ross delayed his jump until Lt . Hudnut was clear . After Lt . Ross left the basket , some burning balloon pieces dropped onto his opened parachute : he fell to his death from three thousand feet . Lt . Ross was the only U . S . Army balloon pilot or observer to be killed in action . He was buried in France , near where he fell . None of the companies from Ross Field were assigned for overseas service . While the Balloon School at Ross Field was in operation , it trained about 200 officers as observers . After the end of World War I , the field was abandoned in the spring of 1919 and most of the men were released from Army service . Those that stayed in , went to Fort Omaha , Scott Field , Illinois , and the remaining equipment and some men went to Brooks Field , Texas . The Army divested itself of Ross Field on 1 March 1926 . Inter - War period . Ross Field saw some post - World War I reuse as a civil aircraft airfield ( Arcadia Intermediate Landing Field _ , but this was limited to the small size of the airfield , due to its original purpose as a balloon field . Ross Field was used as a private field starting in 1922 , and was where aviation legend Pancho Barnes learned to fly . One of the hangars was used in 1930 for filming of the Zeppelin sequence for the movie " Hells Angels " . The property largely sat idle until 1935 , when it was transferred to the city of Arcadia . The airfield was apparently closed by 1940 , The site of Ross Field is located southwest of the intersection of Santa Anita Avenue & Huntington Drive . The former Army Balloon school is now mostly a golf course .