Airbase is Named Freeman Field
Twingine Times, March 12, 1943

The War Department, Washington, D. C., has announced in General Order Number 10, dated March 3, that the advanced flying school, southwest of Seymour, will be named Freeman Army Air Field, honoring the memory of an Indianian, Capt. Richard Shafle Freeman, who was killed in a bomber crash in Nevada early in the war.

Colonel E. T. Rundquist, commanding officer of the field, said the announcement had just been received here.

Capt. Freeman, son of Ab Freeman of Winamac, Ind., became famous for his "mercy flights" when he flew with Red Cross supplies to relieve earthquake sufferers in Chile in 1939. He later led a mercy mission to the leper colony near Molokai in the Pacific.

Founded Air Field

Capt. Freeman earned many honors. He was the founder of, and one time commandant of Ladd Field, Alaska.

He participated in the Good Will mass flight of B-17 Flying Fortresses to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in February, 1938, and later in the same year he piloted a similar ship from Langley Field to Bogota, Columbia.

He flew with General Henry H. Arnold in a mass flight of Martin bombers from Washington to Fairbanks, Alaska, and was a member of a crew flying a B-17 in filming the movie "Test Pilot".Capt. Freeman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for meritorious service in flying, and the Mackay Trophy for outstanding achievements in aviation engineering.

Freeman was graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, in 1930. Previously he had attended Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana.

In commenting on his accomplishments, the 1942 West Point Yearbook said: "In addition to his rating as command pilot, navigator, pilot of multi-engined planes, he was also considered to be an expert bomgardier. He had 6,000 hours of flying time.