Q: Would you trace the development of what is currently called Peachtree DeKalb Airport? It’s been called so many different things and I’d like to know the history of it.
—Fred Connor, Cumming
A: Forget about the wild blue yonder. DeKalb Peachtree Airport is on land that once was an Army post.
World War I was raging in Europe in 1917 and the United States needed soldiers, so the Army procured land in DeKalb County and built a training facility called Camp Gordon.
The camp encompassed 2,400 acres and had enough buildings to house 46,612 soldiers. It was the “largest construction project in Atlanta history to that time,” according to a historical marker at the airport.
Alvin C. York, who became the country’s most decorated soldier of World War I, trained there, but the war ended, and by 1919, Camp Gordon was no longer needed.
The land was parceled and 300 acres were put aside for a future airport, pdkairport.org states, but nothing happened until 1939, when the county used WPA funds to build dirt runways.
The first plane landed on Feb. 12, 1941.
DeKalb County Airport was in business, but only for a short time.
World War II had started, so the Navy soon transformed the airport into what would become Naval Air Station Atlanta.
More than 3,000 pilots trained there before the end of the war in 1945 and NAS Atlanta remained in DeKalb County until 1959, when it moved next to Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta.
Civilians began using the airport again in 1959, and it gained a new name – DeKalb Peachtree Airport, which is now the second-busiest airport in Georgia.
Don’t be confused.
Most of us call it Peachtree DeKalb Airport or PDK, which is the FAA’s official identifying code.
And pilots don’t seem to be bothered by name game.
DeKalb Peachtree Airport generally is known as Peachtree Ground or Peachtree Tower, former airport director Mike Van Wie told me a couple of years ago.
The airport will hold its annual Good Neighbor Day Open House from noon-5 p.m. on May 14, featuring aerial displays and airplane and helicopter rides. Go to pdkairshow.com for more information.
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