World War I Ellington Field Scrapbook

Ellington Field was officially opened November 27, 1917, as the United States' largest pilot and navigator training base, and the nation's first aerial bombing school. By the end of World War I, Ellington Field had grown to the size of a small city which housed 20,000 men and 250 aircraft. Like most bases, it was closed after World War I, but unlike most other military installations, it was reopened and saw at least partial use until World War II, when it was rebuilt as one of ten strategic defense bases in the United States. It was the only strategic defense base on the Gulf Coast. The location of the field was, and still is, crucial to the defense of the Houston Ship Channel, the ports of Galveston and Houston and one of the United States' largest oil refining centers. In 2005, the field was once again expanded to become a Joint Reserves base, to house the combined military forces Reserve Units. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense recommended retiring Ellington Field's 147th Fighter Wing F-16 Falcon fighter jets. The aircraft were replaced with MQ-1 Predator unmanned drones and the unit was redesignated as the 147th Reconnaissance Wing. The ANG 272nd Engineering Installation Squadron, was also relocated to Ellington Field. From 1976 to 2007, Ellington Field was partially owned and managed by the Houston Airport System, and the base was also home to the Texas State Guard, NASA's Johnson Space Center, a U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue unit, and other aviation related businesses.

No biographical information about the scrapbook's creater is known. There is a sign in one of the photographs that reads, "1st Lieut. F.A. Sansone, 1st Lieut. C.H. Penland, 2nd Lieut. J.B. Haddon." All three were aviators assigned to Ellington Field in August, 1918, presumably one of them was the compiler.