As Veterans Day approaches, it’s a good time to look back at St. Joseph’s airport. Everyone knows the city’s municipal airport is known as Rosecrans Memorial Airport. But do any of us know just who is memorialized?

His full name was Guy Wallace Rosecrans, and he was born on July 28, 1896, in Omaha, Neb. He grew up with his family on King Hill Avenue in St. Joseph and went to work for Swift and Co. before World War I.

When the country entered the war, Mr. Rosecrans was 21, and he enlisted. He was accepted into the Army’s Air Service, rose to the rank of sergeant and earned his pilot’s wings. He was transferred to a Royal Air Force unit in England. And then he got orders to go to France in February 1918 to a British aviation school.

But on Oct. 16, 1918, the sergeant’s life came to an end at St. Jean De Monts (Vendee), France. He was helping a buddy prepare to take off and got in the way of a moving propeller. He had been scheduled to become a member of the RAF 153 Squadron that had orders to form on Nov. 1, 1918.

The city decided to honor Mr. Rosecrans, the only known aviator from St. Joseph to die in World War I, by naming the airfield for him. The McDonald, Dugger, Duncan Post No. 11 of the American Legion paid for the bronze plaque dedicated to Mr. Rosecrans. A decision was made to use a large pink granite stone to mount the bronze plaque, crafted to stand paying mute tribute. The plaque also pays tribute to all those who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I.

The plaque and new airport were dedicated on May 12, 1923. This first Rosecrans Memorial Airport was located north of the present-day Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino, along Waterworks Road.

The rock and bronze plaque were moved in 1940, when the city airport was moved to its present location. Today, inside the airport’s tower building, a light shines on a sepia-toned picture of the Army pilot.

Each week, Property of the Past writer Marshall White features a building or an item of St. Joseph history. If you have a building, home, special collection or interesting piece of history, contact him at marshall@npgco.com.

Newspapers in Education

The young men and women of Northwest Missouri continue to enlist for military service. The News-Press has a Stars & Stripes feature that shows what some of these young people are doing. Also, sometimes a service member or veteran’s story appears in the newspaper. Find a story about a service member and see what interests you in the story, or what you think is missing from the story. Then ask family members if they served in the military and write a paragraph about what your relative did. Show your work to your teacher and see if he or she will accept it as a homework assignment.