1942-1947 Sedalia Army Air Field Warrensburg, Missouri

 History of Sedalia Army Airfield (Whiteman AFB)

Sedalia Army Airfield, now Whiteman Air Force Base, began in 1942 when the U.S. Army Air Corps selected the site near Knob Noster, Missouri, for the Sedalia Glider Base.  Construction started in May 1942, with a railroad spur built to support the base, and it quickly became a major training facility for Waco CG-4A troop and cargo glider pilots and paratroopers.

By November 1942, the base was expanded to Sedalia Army Airfield under the I Troop Carrier Command. Units trained there for major WWII campaigns, including the Normandy Invasion (D-Day), the Battle of the Bulge, the Rhine crossing, North Africa, Sicily, Operation Market Garden, and the massive Operation Varsity airdrop. The 314 Troop Carrier Group, for example, participated in the Sicily invasion in 1943 and D-Day in 1944.

After WWII, the field was inactivated in 1947 but was reactivated in 1951 as Sedalia Air Force Base under the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC).