<P> The 375th Air Mobility Wing is the host to more than 30 tenant units, including the Air Force Office of Special Investigations 3rd Field Investigations Region, the 932d Airlift Wing (Air Force Reserve Command), the 126th Air Refueling Wing (Illinois Air National Guard), and the 3rd Manpower Requirements Squadron (Air Force Manpower Agency). </P> <P> During World War I, Secretary of War Newton Baker advocated an expanded role for aviation . Business and political leaders on both sides of the Mississippi River wanted the Midwest to be chosen as a site for one of the new "flying fields ." Aerial expert Albert Bond Lambert joined the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and directors of the Greater Belleville Board of Trade to negotiate a lease agreement for nearly 624 acres of land . </P> <P> After inspecting several sites, the U.S. War Department agreed to the lease June 14, 1917 . Congress appropriated $10 million for its construction, and 2,000 laborers and carpenters were immediately put to work . The layout of Scott Field was typical of aviation fields built during World War I. Construction began in June 1917 . The government gave the Unit Construction Company 60 days to erect approximately 60 buildings, lay a mile - long railroad spur, and to level off an airfield with a 1,600 foot landing circle . Construction was underway when the government announced, on July 20, 1917, that it would name the new field after Corporal Frank S. Scott, the first enlisted service member killed in an aviation crash . Scott had died after an unexpected engine failure had brought down the aircraft that Lieutenant Lewis Rockwell had been giving him an orientation flight in at College Park, Maryland, on September 28, 1912 . </P> <P> Scott Field began as an aviation - training field for World War I pilots in August 1917 when the 11th and 21st Aero Squadrons from Kelly Field, Texas, arrived . Construction was completed in August, and the first flight from Scott Field occurred 2 September 1917 . Flying instruction began 11 September 1917 . Later the 85th and 86th Aero Squadrons arrived, and more than 300 pilots and many ground units were trained for service by the war's end in 1918 . </P>

Who is scott air force base named after