Wisconsin Historical Society
At Truax during World War II: a U.S. Army Air Corps trainee in the cockpit of a biplane, with two flight instructors outside.
It was originally a marsh. Later, it was a city unto itself, with two movie theaters, a clinic, hospital, dentists, recreation rooms, a library, 20 warehouses, an obstacle course, firing range and chapels “at convenient points on the field.”
Truax Field has long been a place in transition.
Albert Larson, who was interviewed in May 1948 by the Wisconsin Conservation Bulletin, owned much of the property that would eventually become Truax Field. Born in 1875, Larson was a trapper who began his career at the age of 13, when there were “so many mink that the animals made beaten paths along the ditches the farmers had dug” to gradually drain the land to raise corn and cabbage.
Truax Field was activated in June 1942 as a base for the U.S. Army Air Corps — the Air Force was not created until 1947.
In today’s dollars, the airbase cost $329.75 million to build. The government owned 2,500 acres, 600 of them dedicated to flight operations. The base reached all the way to East Washington Avenue and Stoughton Road. Photos depict rows of barracks reaching into the far distance. Even then, there wasn’t enough room.
Some 100,000 men and women passed through its gates during World War II. There was flight training in forgiving biplanes. But the main work was “the all important field of radio communications,” both sending and receiving, according to a war-time brochure. That included Morse Code. It took weeks “to master the mysteries of the ‘dits’ and ‘dahs.’”
The mess hall ran 24 hours. Women worked as airplane mechanics and in the offices. There were also classes in painting and sculpture. Regular dances were hosted by the base orchestra. It broadcast a weekly program, “Truax Field Calling,” with songs and skits over WIBA. Radio Post was the base newspaper, and “Corporal AWOL” was the base mascot, a live donkey.
Three months after the war’s end, on the fourth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Madison and Wisconsin Foundation announced that “Few enterprises affected this locality in 3½ years as has Truax Field — probably Madison’s largest contribution toward victory.”
“Owners of every house, apartment and room had tenants, largely due to Truax Field,” according to the Foundation. “It brought more money than any other enterprise here.”
But where did the name come from? All of it was named for Madison native Lt. Thomas “Bud” Truax. “Nothing could be more appropriate,” notes a 1942 base bulletin. “He was such a splendid young American,” always “a lad’s lad,” and “serious minded, wholesome and likeable.” Truax signed up before the war, and he wanted to join the Flying Tigers squadrons in China. He died in a crash while training near San Francisco on Nov. 2, 1941.
The original base motto, “Sustineo Alas,” means “I am waiting for wings.”
This story is part of a series. You can access the full series here.
