Videos

Video by Kevin Schwandt

Offutt Field 100 Years Ceremony

55th Wing

May 10, 2024 | 26:09

The 55th Wing held a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the naming of Offutt Field on May 10, 2024. The ceremony was hosted by Col. Mark D. Howard, 55th Wing commander with Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen as the keynote speaker.
In February 1924, the Douglas County Reserve Officers Association proposed the Fort Crook landing field be named in honor of 1st Lt. Jarvis Offutt. Offutt was Omaha’s first World War I air casualty, who as a U.S. Army Air Service pilot, was killed in 1918 flying with the Royal Air Force in France.
May 6, 1924, the airfield at Fort Crook was officially named Offutt Field. The ceremony was attended by Lt. Jarvis Offutt’s mother, Bertha, and his younger brother, Casper, and included an aerial salute from 19 planes, which flew in from Fort Riley, Kansas.