AG4AY
AG4AY
Alpha Golf Four Alpha Yankee
12th Air Force DASC, Bergstrom AFB, Austin, TX
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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
is accompanied December 8th by an attack on the U.S. base at Clark
Field, the Philippines. Captain John August Earl Bergstrom, 34, a
reservist serving as an administrative officer in the 19th Bombardment
Group, is killed in the attack. Captain Bergstrom, born on August
25, 1907, a graduate of Texas A&M, is the first Austinite killed in the
war. Urged by Captain Bergstrom's former employer, the Austin National
Bank, Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson prevails on the U.S. Army Air Force
to name the air base after Austin's fallen son. On March 3, 1943,
Del Valle Army Air Base becomes Bergstrom Army Air Field. The base was closed in 1995. |