JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COMFRANK S. SCOTT
Born: Dec. 2, 1883 Braddock,
Pa.
Died: Sept. 28, 1912 College
Park, Md.
Education: Unknown
Occupation: US non-com-
missioned o icer
Service: US Army (Field
Artillery, Signal Corps)
Era: Experimental
Years of Service: 1908-12
Combat: None
Final Grade: CorporalSCOTT AIR FORCE BASE
State: Illinois
Nearest City: Belleville
Area: 5.46 sq mi / 3,500+
acres
Status: Open, operational
Site acquired: June 14, 1917
Named Scott Field: July
20, 1917
Opened: Sept. 1, 1917
First flight: Sept. 2, 1917
Renamed Scott AFB: Jan.
13, 1948
Current owner: Air Mobility
Command
Former owners: Signal
Corps, Bureau of Military
Aeronautics, Air Service, Air
Corps, GHQ Air Force, Tech-
nical Training Command, Air
Training Command, Military
Air Transport Service, Military
Airlift CommandPhotos: USAF; SrA. Daniel Garcia; Courtesy
SCOTTThe One and Only
1/Cpl. Frank Scott. 2/ C-21s in a hangar at
Scott AFB, Ill. 3/Dirigibles in a hangar at
Scott Field in 1923.13The Air Force has built scores of air bases, but only
one was named after an enlisted man. That man was
Army Cpl. Frank S. Scott.
Scott perished in an airplane crash in 1912, be-
coming the first enlisted fatality in the history of US
military aviation.
Service brass in 1917 bestowed Scott’s name on
a new base east of St. Louis. “Scott Field” grew into
today’s Scott AFB, Ill.
Despite this singular honor, little is known about
Scott. Records show he was born Dec. 2, 1883, in
Braddock, Pa., near Pittsburgh. On May 31, 1889, he
lost his parents in the historic John-
stown Flood. The six-year-old was
taken in by an aunt.
Then comes a 19-year gap. Scott
does not reappear in the public re-
cord until 1908 when, at 24, he joined
the Army.
Scott enlisted at Fort Slocum, N.Y.,
near the Bronx. His military career
started in the Field Artillery Branch, where he put in
three years and acquired a corporal’s stripes.
In July 1911, Scott contracted what proved to be a
long and serious illness. Deemed unable to carry out
“mounted duty,” he was discharged with an “excellent
character” rating.
Before 1911 was out, however, Scott re-enlisted
in the Signal Corps and began hot-air balloon duty,
likely at the Fort Wood, N.Y., test site.
On April 2, 1912, the Signal Corps re-opened the
Aviation School at College Park Flying Field, Md. The
school needed airplane mechanics and Scott, who
had mechanical skills, got the job.
He soon became chief mechanic for one of the
Wright Type-B biplanes there. The scene at College
Park was high-energy. Two soon-to-be famous
lieutenants—Henry Harley Arnold and Thomas
Dewitt Milling—served as flight instructors and
test pilots.
Scott was drawn to the excitement and impor-
tuned a student pilot, 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, to
take him up some day. On Sept. 27, 1912, Rockwell
agreed. Scott was to fly the next day.
On Sept. 28, Rockwell went up alone to test Signal
Corps No. 4, a two-seat Wright Model B airplane.
Satisfied that this machine was working properly,
Rockwell landed to pick up Scott.
At the last minute, an officer tried
to bump Scott. Rockwell told him,
“No, you’re too heavy,” and Scott
clambered aboard.
They took off and soared for 10
minutes. Before landing, however,
the aircraft developed engine trou-
ble, nosed downward, and crashed
hard. Scott died instantly, Rockwell
only hours later.
It was history’s first-ever multi-fatality aviation
accident.
Both were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Rockwell’s name, like Scott’s, wound up on an air
base—the old Rockwell Field (now NAS North Island)
in San Diego.
Scott Air Force Base, with its 1917 birth date, is
USAF’s fourth-oldest continuously active installa-
tion. Located there are, among many service and
joint units: headquarters of Air Mobility Command
and US Transportation Command; the 126th Air Refu-
eling Wing and 375th Air Mobility Wing; the Tanker/
Airlift Control Center; and the Defense Information
Systems Agency’s Global Operations Command. ✪NAMESAKES
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