Buried Treasure


Freeman Field in Seymour, Indiana was built by the Army Air Corps in 1942 to be used as an advanced multi-engine training base for pilots after they completed basic flight training. The pilots flew twin-engine Beech AT-10 Wichita’s. Following the nine-week instruction, pilots received their silver Air Corps wings and transitioned to B-17s, B-24s or transport aircraft and joined the war effort in Europe. Over four-thousand pilots trained at Freeman Field
Also, on the base were Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) and Women’s Army Corps (WACs). The WACs served in administrative assignments and worked in control towers. The WASPs acted as ferry pilots delivering airplanes and test flew aircraft after repairs. (Couldn’t risk the lives of valuable male pilots, I guess.)
Also spending time at Freeman field was a group of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, an African American outfit that distinguished itself in the skies over Europe. The military was segregated when the Airmen arrived at Freeman Field. However, it was their protest, known as the Freeman Field Mutiny, over not being able to use the officer’s club that led to the desegregation of the armed services.
When the war ended, Freeman Field became especially famous. The base was repurposed in early 1945 as the Foreign Aircraft Evaluation Center. One hundred sixty captured German, Japanese, and Italian aircraft were shipped to Freeman Field for flight testing and engineering evaluations. The planes included Messerschmitt 109s, Focke-Wulf-190s, Japanese Zeros, the German Jet ME 262s, V-1 & V-2 rockets, and Heinkel bombers. After a year of testing, the aircraft went to museums such as the Smithsonian, Wright Paterson, and other locations. However, what was left behind were hangers full of aircraft parts. The Army sold the airfield to the town of Seymour for $1.00 but didn’t know what to do with the miscellaneous parts. In haste, the departing Army commander said, “Just bury them.”
Years passed, and rumors of the buried treasures were circulated by former wartime workers. Some even speculated whole airplanes were buried along with the parts. Searches were made but nothing was found. Then in 1997 Lex Cralley and Dallas Tohill, who had been digging and searching since the early 1990s, quite by accident, began finding things. The “Dig” was eventually taken over by the Freeman Field Recovery Team (FFRT) and today the Freeman Field Museum is chock full of German, Japanese, and Italian aircraft landing gear, propellers, machine guns, jet engines, gun sights, instruments, and airframe parts.
The Freeman Army Air Field Museum is a must-see for all military historians or WW II history buffs.