Hicks Field

Hicks Field is a former World War I military airfield, located 5.6mi North-northwest of Saginaw, Texas. It operated as a training field for the Air Service, United States Army between 1917 until 1920. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917.After the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing invited the British Royal Flying Corps to establish training fields in Texas for the training of American and Canadians volunteers because of its mild weather. After looking at sites in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, Wichita Falls and Midland, three sites were established in 1917 in the Fort Worth vicinity, those being Hicks Field, Barron Field, and Benbrook Field .Canadians named the training complex Camp Taliaferro after Walter Taliaferro, a US aviator who had been killed in an accident. Camp Taliaferro was headquartered under the direction of the Air Service, United States Army, which had an administration center near what is now the Will Rodgers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas.HistoryTaliafero Field No. 1 was used by the Royal Flying Corps from October 1917 to April 1918 as a training field for American and Canadian pilots. It was then turned over to the Air Service, United States Army. The Americans renamed the field Hicks Field, after Charles Hicks, who owned the Hicks Ranch on which the airfield was built.