Hendricks Army Airfield Hendricks Army Airfield was a World War II United States Army Air Forces base located 6 . 6 miles east - southeast of Sebring , Florida . History . Hendricks Army Airfield is a former United States Army Air Forces base . It was used during World War II as a Heavy Bomber Training School for B - 17 Flying Fortress and B - 24 Liberator pilots . It was under the jurisdiction of the 76th Flying Training Wing ( Specialized 4 - Engine ) , Smyrna Army Airfield , Tennessee . The base was named Hendricks Field in honor of First Lieutenant Laird Woodruff Hendricks , Jr . A native Floridian , Hendricks was born in Ocala , Florida , grew up in Jacksonville , Florida and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York in 1939 . Commissioned into the Army Air Corps , Hendricks completed flight training and received his aeronautical rating as an Army pilot . Lieutenant Hendricks was killed in a B - 17C ( RAF Fortress I ) crash near RAF Polebrook , England on 28 July 1941 , just three days after he arrived there to train Royal Air Force pilots . Origins . The airfield ' s origins begin in 1940 when Sebring officials and citizens contacted their Florida congressional delegation to see about getting an Army base in the area . In the summer of 1940 , and in early 1941 , a group of Army Air Corps officers surveyed the area . On June 12 , 1941 , Congressman J . Hardin Peterson advised that an area of 9 , 200 acres ( 3 , 700 ha ) of woodland had been approved for a basic flying school . The City of Sebring purchased the land and leased it to the government at $ 1 per year for 99 years . On July 20 , 1941 construction began with Cleary Brothers of West Palm Beach as the General Contractor and Colonel A . H . Bond of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in charge . Major Leonard H . Rodieck , who had designed the base , provided oversight for the Army Air Corps . A railroad spur was extended to the installation , followed by construction of the air base facilities and infrastructure . In time , the base became a self - supporting city with paved streets , water and sewage systems , frame buildings , two - story barracks , and for concrete runways , each 300 feet ( 91 m ) wide by 5 , 000 feet ( 1 , 500 m ) long . The first soldiers arrived on September 5 , 1941 and initially occupied tents on the shore of Lake Jackson on the edge of Sebring until they moved onto the base in December when the first barracks were completed . While under construction , the base was known , unofficially , as Kehoe Field , either by joke or by error . The base achieved its initial operating capability and was placed under command of Major Roderick on June 26 , 1941 . Following the attack on Pearl Harbor , the base ' s status was upgraded to full operational capability and placed under the command of Colonel Carl B . McDaniel . In addition to the main base , several sub - bases and auxiliaries were constructed to support the training program : At the close of 1941 , the initial construction program was completed and the contractors were preparing to move their equipment elsewhere when an order came to expand the building program . Then it was revealed that the field would not be used for basic flight training . It was to become the first Combat Crew Training School in the United States , for heavy bombers . The School was activated pursuant to letter AG 680 ( C - 19 - 41 ) , June 23 , 1941 , Subject : Establishment of Air Schools , effective 26 June 1941 , and designated Air Corps Training Center , Maxwell Field , Alabama and given an exempted status and placed under the control of Chief of Air Corps . Heavy bomber training . The base was renamed Hendricks Field on 14 January 1942 . It was assigned to the Army Air Forces Training Command , Eastern Flight Training Center , 76th Flying Training Wing . On 29 January 1942 , the first B - 17 Flying Fortress landed at Hendricks Field . In peak operation about 120 B - 17 ’ s were assigned and over 10 , 000 pilots and other crewmembers were trained . Initially the Combat Crew Training School consisted of one qualified B - 17 pilot , one B - 17 mechanic and one B - 17 airplane . But this team trained additional pilots , and these additional pilots brought in other B - 17s , with the result that an Instructors School was organized , and after one month ’ s operations was able to make full use of the 10 B - 17 ’ s later assigned to the field . March 1942 saw the beginning of the program which would train and coordinate combat crews ; Pilot , Copilot , Navigator , Bombardier , Aerial Engineer , Radio Operator , and Gunners . With the arrival of additional B - 17 ’ s came a staff of student instructors , both flying and ground school . And in short order the program was in full swing . That program continued until the latter part of 1942 , during which hundreds of combat crews were trained and dispatched to the European and North African Theatres of Operations , where they distinguished themselves in raids on enemy shipping , airfields and other ground installations . Later in 1942 , the mission of Hendricks Field was changed . It was to be a specialized school for four - engine first pilots ; other members of the combat crews would be assembled at other points after training at specialized schools for Copilots , Navigators , Bombardiers , Aerial Engineers , Radio Operators and Gunners . Thousands of trained pilots were sent to Hendricks field to upgrade from single and twin engine ratings for transition . During the war , graduates of the school produced B - 17 , B - 24 and later , B - 29 Superfortress flight crews . In addition , the Hendricks Field ground school was regarded as one of the leading ones in the Army Air Forces . Classes were taught in navigations meteorology , radio and engineering . In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force , on 1 May 1944 , numbered training units in the Zone of the Interior ( ZI ) ( Continental United States ) were re - designated as " Army Air Forces Base Units " . At Hendricks , the 2137th Army Air Forces Base Unit ( Pilot School , Specialized 4 - Engine ) became the flying training school . The operational squadrons of the school were also re - designated as " A " to " D " . The training missions continued under these new designations . Closure . With the end of the European war in May 1945 , the pace of training pilots slowed down during the summer months . With the Japanese surrender in August of that year , training programs ended and flight operations at Hendricks began to wind down . Air traffic consisted of transient aircraft as de - mobilization was the order of the day , with most personnel being returned to civilian life . In November 1945 , HQ Air Training Command announced that Hendricks Field was one of the many wartime training bases that would be inactivated . The base was transferred to Air Technical Service Command ( ATSC ) , whose mission was the transfer of any useful military equipment to other bases around the country . The base was closed on 31 December 1945 and declared as surplus in 1946 , being was turned over to the War Assets Administration ( WAA ) for disposal . On February 21 , 1946 , the city of Sebring received a permit to operate a civilian airfield on the site and on May 1 , 1946 , the abandoned airfield was turned over to the City of Sebring to become Sebring Air Terminal , now Sebring Regional Airport & Commerce Park .