Selman Army Airfield Selman Army Airfield is an inactive United States Air Force base , approximately 7 . 7 miles east of Monroe , Louisiana . It was active during World War II as an Army Air Forces Training Command airfield . It was closed on 1 September 1945 History . In May 1942 , Colonel Norris B . Harbold came to Monroe , Louisiana as project officer of the Army Air Forces Navigation School which was to be located at Monroe . The plans were drawn , specifications made , and blueprints approved in the six weeks that followed . The military base was built at the site of a small civil airport constructed in the 1930s named " Selman Airport " , which was named after a Navy Pilot , Lieutenant Augustus J . Selman , USN , a native of Monroe , LA , died at Norfolk , Virginia , on November 28 , 1921 , of injuries received in an airplane crash in the line of duty . Construction of the base began on 15 June 1942 with the base being activated that day in a paper status . Selman Army Airfield was placed under the jurisdiction of the 74th Flying Training Wing , Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command ( EFTC ) . Base Headquarters was under the jurisdiction of the 329th Base Hq and Air Base Squadron . Construction was rapid given the emergency wartime conditions and within three months the post was to be in full operation . The airfield consisted of four concrete runways 6100x150 ( N / S ) , 5500x150 ( NE / SW ) , 6100x150 ( E / W ) , 6100x150 ( NW / SE ) taxiways with the runways laid out on an " A " layout , with one extended length main runway , and two short secondary runways connected to an extended , large aircraft parking apron capable of parking several hundred aircraft in an overlapping squares , or " star " layout with a series of taxiways . In addition to the airfield , the building of a large support base with several hundred buildings , numerous streets , a utility network , was carried out with barracks , various administrative buildings , maintenance shops and hangars . The station facility consisted of a large number of buildings based on standardized plans and architectural drawings , with the buildings designed to be the " cheapest , temporary character with structural stability only sufficient to meet the needs of the service which the structure is intended to fulfill during the period of its contemplated war use " was underway . To conserve critical materials , most facilities were constructed of wood , concrete , brick , gypsum board and concrete asbestos . Metal was sparsely used . The station was designed to be nearly self - sufficient , with not only hangars , but barracks , warehouses , hospitals , dental clinics , dining halls , and maintenance shops were needed . There were libraries , social clubs for officers , and enlisted men , and stores to buy living necessities . The buildings , together with complete water , sewer , electric and gas utilities , the airfield served over 4 , 000 military personnel . On August 8 , the first meal was served on the post in a partly completed mess hall . Forty enlisted men moved out to the post that night and a living military organization began to grow within the gates . Training airfield . On August 11 , a motor convoy from Turner Army Airfield , Albany , Georgia , brought the cadres of the first squadrons of ground troops to the post . On August 15 , the AAF Pre - Flight School ( Bombardier - Navigator ) was transferred to Selman AAF from Maxwell Field , Alabama . The day after the arrival of the staff , enlisted men and cadets of the Pre - Flight School , classes were in session in improvised academic halls . The cadets had lost only one day of classes in moving nearly 400 miles , with the day spent on the train . Vultee BT - 13 Valiant s were flown for basic flying training , and T C - 47 Skytrain s and T C - 46 Commando s were used beginning in late 1944 for various administrative needs by the Base Flight . The last elements of the Advanced Navigation School arrived on the night of September 14 , one day less than three months after the activation date . Selman Field was the largest navigation school in the United States in its time and the nation ' s only complete navigation course — from start to finish — during World War II . The vast majority of aircraft flown at Selman AAF were Beech C - 45 Expeditor s , also known as the AT - 7 . Of the hundreds of fields that were operated by the Army Air Forces , it was only at Selman that a cadet could get his entire training — pre - flight and advanced — and wind up with a commission and navigators wings without ever leaving the field . Once in operation , the Navigator school expanded rapidly . Over 15 , 000 navigators were trained at Selman Field , who flew in every theater of operations during the war . Women Airforce Service Pilots ( WASP ) squadrons were assigned to Selman AAF in 1944 . WASPs flew C - 45s in navigational flying to train cadet The curriculum consisted of teaching young men how to " get ' em there and get ' em back . " The cadet had to know all aspects of navigation in order to determine where he was , where he wanted to go and when he would get there . The science of navigation offered four methods of accomplishing this . The first is pilotage or navigating by landmarks , using maps and charts . The second is dead reckoning , which consist of keeping track of how far you have gone and in what direction since you started , using instruments which measure various aspects of the plane in motion , such as speed , deviation , wind drift and so on . The third method is radio navigation which consists of " riding the beam " from one station to another until you progress to where you want to go . The final way to navigate is by celestial bodies . These are immutable , but you must be able to identify them in their different configurations in all quarters of the heavens at all times of the night and day . Armed with the best knowledge and training possible . The navigation cadets graduated and became members of combat crews . On 1 May 1944 , Training Command inactivated the Navigator School , being re - designated as the 329th Army Air Forces Base Unit ( Navigation School ) . The 842d and 843d training squadrons were reorganized into Squadron " A " and Squadron " B " and assigned to the 2023d AAFBU . By November 1944 , instructors at the navigation school were primarily combat veterans who had flown their required number of combat missions for rotation back to the United States . With the end of the war in Europe , the school for a while continued navigation training . The navigation school increased to twenty - four weeks in May 1945 , with new subjects including radar indoctrination , over water flight , and cruise control . Closure . Shortly after the conclusion of hostilities with Japan , the Army Air Forces decided to concentrate all navigation training at Ellington Field , Texas , which previously had trained instructors and graduate navigators . Navigator training ended on 1 September 1945 when the school was closed . With the end of the war in the Pacific , students at Selman AAF were asked if they wanted to remain in the postwar Air Forces . Those who elected to remain were reassigned to Ellington to continue their training , and those who elected for separation were assigned other general duties on the field . After the school closure Selman AAF was used as a separation center for returning overseas personnel . By mid - December the last of the training aircraft were flown to reclamation centers for sale or scrapping . In early July 1946 Selman received orders from Air Training Command to shut down operations as a separation center for returning overseas personnel , with a programmed closure date of the end of the month . The airport was returned to civil control on 31 July 1946 . However , it was reopened as a minimally - manned satellite field of Barksdale Field , Shreveport , Louisiana . Selman Field was officially deactivated on 30 June 1947 . Postwar use . The ownership of the property was transferred to the City of Monroe in September 1949 . Monroe Regional Airport is now a public use airport in Ouachita Parish , Louisiana , United States . The airport is owned by the City of Monroe and is located three nautical miles ( 6 km ) east of its central business district . The airport is advertised as the birthplace of Delta Air Lines ; the airport ' s logo is a variant on the Delta logo . Today the wartime airfield is largely intact , the 04 / 22 NE / SW main runway being extended for jet use . The large parking apron remains intact , with the civilian air terminal being built on the concrete of the ramp . Several wartime hangars remain and are still in use . The buildings of the ground station were sold , removed or torn down over the years and the area has been totally re - engineered , the wartime streets removed and the base converted into an business complex with light industry . The only possible remnant of the base is a baseball field .