It's difficult to separate early history of Sportsman's Field and Smith Field. Their beginnings were nearly simultaneous. Their pilots intermingled. First attempts at success died together. Only their objectives were different.

The bug bit Bob Smith, Jake Menzie and other boys at the old Zimmer Field. They never got over the inoculation. Bob, his father, Howard, and brother, Wilbur, started Smith airport, west of road 15 and north of Monoquet in 1938.

With hangar, an airplane franchise and a will to fly, they got underway. Menzie, Paul Lowman, Bill VanDoran, Wilbur Hoppus, Bill Bailey, Bob Murtaugh, Francis Brown and others were sky-borne clients.

A portion of this crowd joined forces with air-minded young men from Goshen, started an aero club. Twenty-five of them owned an airplane. I believe it was an old Porterfield.

 At Smith Field an effort was made to build a business, give instruction and sell airplanes.

A group of clubsters, maintaining their amateur standing, secured a lease on a patch of ground four miles north east of Warsaw. Sportsman's airport was inaugurated. The bright orange hanger still stands.

After moving their base of operations to the amateur field, the group of young airmen bought their first plane from Smith. At Sportsman's Field were many who had flown and who still flew at the early Smith Field. Among them were Menzie, Carlin, Bob Burden, Bill Snyder, Jay Shue--too many really to name all.

These American boys were unconsciously furthering the interests of their country. When war came, our first instructors and many of our local air corps men came from these pioneering pilots.

Stringent war rules requiring an armed guard at airports 24 hours per day, caused both Smith Field and Sportsman to close. Only Rochester, crawling out of its knee-pants into its longies, was able to hire a guard and stay in business continuously.

Bob Burden from Sportsman's Field and Bob Smith, one of the founders of Smith Field, Volunteered early for ferry duty with the English air force. Both were lost at sea in a submarine attack en route across.

Paul Lowman made many Atlantic hops. Joe Carlin was nursing fledgling airmen. Wilbur Hoppus was instructing. Murtaugh was with the Air Transport Command. Bill Bailey instructed.

Exploits of all these men and the many, many more who learned to fly because of the great war, will make the subject of a future column. Undoubtedly Kosciusko county gave the air corps more than its share of men. Those who did not return helped make our present peaceful flying fields in a free country possible, where the only warships are souvenirs.

With their family life so entangled in aviation by this time, a boy lost, a field stagnate, an investment in equipment, the Smiths, Wilbur and Howard, re-opened their airport in 1945 after a three year lay-off.

A flying preacher, Rev. Paul Hartford, was their first post-war operator, followed by Carlin, Lowman and recently Frederick Strauss, Jr. Meanwhile, the community conscience began to twinge to provide a municipal airport for the air-age to come. Cautious "feelers" were extended in the direction of air-minded pocketbooks. (How Municipal Becomes an Airport, next)

Executive Secretary Brethren Home Missions council, Winona Lake's Lew Grubb has a new Cessna. Flies over his territory, tending church business, arriving home days ahead of schedule.

Talk about Flying Saucers! Goodyear's advertising blimp was an eye-opener when it flew over one night this week, with electric signs flashing on its big fat sides.

Warsaw Daily Times Fri. Aug. 1, 1947