On February 27, 1948 Fort Worth Army Air Field was renamed “Carswell Air Force Base” in honor of Fort Worth native Major Horace Seaver “Stump” Carswell Jr. (1916–1944) (photo from Wikipedia).
Carswell grew up on the North Side, attended North Side High School.
In 1936 Carswell wore a college football uniform, like many young men who in a few years would wear a military uniform. Carswell would graduate in 1939, enlist in 1940.
The 1940 census listed Horace Jr. living with his parents on Denver Avenue on the North Side.
The Carswell house on Denver Avenue was built in 1916, the year Horace Jr. was born—104 years ago.
Major Carswell was reported missing in action over China in October 1944.
This front page of December 8, 1944 shows how the war dominated news. In the lower right corner is a story stating that Carswell, by then declared killed in action, had been recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Carswell had remained at the controls of his crippled B-24 Liberator as the bomber crash-landed in China. (Consolidated Aircraft Company, adjacent to Fort Worth Army Air Field, built B-24s during the war.) He was twenty-eight years old.
Carswell was posthumously awarded the medal in 1946.
Carswell’s heroism was recalled as the air base was renamed for him.
Carswell Air Force Base originally was called “Tarrant Field Airdrome” and then “Fort Worth Army Air Field.” Today the base is known as “Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth” and is operated by the Navy (1947 photo from Lockheed Martin).
Major Horace Seaver “Stump” Carswell Jr. was buried in 1944 at Tungchen, China. In 1945 he was reburied at the American Military Cemetery at Kunming, China. In 1947 he was reburied in Hawaii. In 1948 he was reburied in Rose Hill Cemetery in east Fort Worth. Finally, in 1986 his remains were moved to Carswell Air Force Base.
But wait! One more deployment for the remains of Major Carswell came in 1993 when Carswell Air Force Base ceased active Air Force active duty operations, and Major Carswell’s remains were reburied yet again, this time in Carswell Memorial Park in Oakwood Cemetery.
This marker is at Airfield Falls near the base that was named for Horace Seaver Carswell Jr.
Thank you for putting together this history of Major Carswell. My mother was stationed at Carswell AFB in the early 1970’s. I attended 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades at Theodore Willis Elementary (later renamed Willis-Cartwright Elementary to include our principal, Mr. Cartwright’s name). I have such fond memories of my years living in base housing in Ft. Worth.