VICHY — Researchers at the State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) are working in collaboration with Brewer Science to create a project detailing the history of the Rolla National Airport near Vichy.

Katie Seale, a coordinator with SHSMO’s research centers in Rolla and Springfield, is one of the historians working on the project. She has been collecting stories and memories about the airport from local people.

“We’re archivers and researchers looking into the history, more specifically of the airport, but a little of the surrounding area as well,” Seale said.

Work on the project began in December. Seale said she plans to wrap up the SHSMO side of the project in June. Right now, the project is in the research phase. Historical documents and records provide many facts about the land and its development.

For more personal accounts of the airport’s history, SHSMO has interviewed people who have memories tied to the airport. Seale said that she has already had people eager to contribute to the project, but it could always use more perspectives.

“I’m sure there are more people out there,” she said.

Seale said that specific perspectives she would like to hear are those of pilots who have flown at the airport and people with military backgrounds who have encountered the airport through their work.

“We have a number of community members that can remember the airport going in,” she said. “(They can) remember people at the airport, but people have actually used it -- pilots, maintenance crew, anything like that -- I would like to get a little more information on the actual workings of the airport.”

Seale said SHSMO hopes to put together a timeline of important events and people in the airport’s history. The United States Army Air Forces built the airport in 1942 as part of the military’s efforts in World War II. After the war, the army vacated the airport before the U.S. Navy started using it as an auxiliary landing field. In 1957, it became the property of the City of Rolla.

One important person in the airport’s history is U.S. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, the namesake of the town in Phelps County. In April 1942, Doolittle, at the time a lieutenant colonel, led the initial U.S. retaliation for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The mission, known as the Doolittle Raid, saw 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers and their five-person crews carry out an air strike over Tokyo. People at the time considered the raid a great success, and it boosted morale back in the U.S. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor for his efforts in the strike.

The city of Doolittle’s story goes that the area, which was originally called Centerville, rapidly expanded during the early 1940s when Fort Leonard Wood was under construction nearby. To recognize the town’s military connection, the founders decided to name it Doolittle.

In October 1946, Doolittle flew a B-25 to the airport in Vichy before attending the city of Doolittle’s dedication. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he “feasted on squirrel and rabbit from the Ozark hills and fish from the nearby Gasconade River” and signed “hundreds of autographs” before speaking to a crowd of about 4,000 people.

Another time the airport saw a lot of traffic was during the 1960s. A military project called the Goldfire Operation flew planes out of the airport to practice military maneuvers. Seale said the massive military planes coming through the airport at the time damaged the facilities because they were not equipped to handle traffic of that size.

“There were thousands of troops, equipment, all kinds of stuff that they were bringing out there,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s anybody alive who remembers that maneuvering, but that would be fascinating to know what kind of chaos that was like.”

Over the next few months, Seale plans to compile as much research as she can.

“We’re just trying to find as much information, images, film of the airport’s planes, operations, that sort of thing,” Seale said. “Then (we’re) also talking to people and (recording) their memories of the airport, whether they’re locals that lived there, knew the airport, worked there or used the airport over the years.”

SHSMO plans to package together the documents, data and personal accounts it finds for both the society and Brewer Science to use. Seale said that eventually, people can visit the research room to browse the digital collection.

“We are hoping that if there are individuals in the community that have physical materials -- photographs, records, documents, film, anything like that they’d be interested in donating -- we could take those in and add those to the collections as well,” Seale said.

Seale also said that Brewer Science plans to use the materials to create an introductory documentary short film for new hires to learn about the area.

Anyone who has stories to share about the Rolla National Airport can get in touch with Seale by email at SealeK@shsmo.org or by calling the Rolla Research Center at 573-341-4440.