Was Grand Island Army Air Field a departure station in April, 1944?

I've been doing research on all the Nebraska 2AF stations for a number of years and can confirm that Grand Island did process some crews for overseas transfer during roughly this timeframe. Kearney AAF was actually the main Processing Center in Nebraska but Grand Island and Lincoln both processed a lesser number of crews at different times. GI served as a kind of overflow center for Kearney when the production of crews was more than they could handle.
 
I can dig through my Base Historical files for more accuracy, but I don't know if I have any more specific information for you or not.
 
Hope this helps a bit,
Scott

My records indicate that in late 1944 the 6th Bomb Group/313Bomb Wing (B-29's) was utilizing Grand Isle/Island (?) as a training/staging base.  While Herington and Kearney evolved into the primary B-29 staging bases several other bases - Walker, Great Bend, Pratt, Salina/Smoky Hill to name a few, also performed the staging function in 1944.
 
Bob Mann

When our B-17 crew left Lincoln AAF in November 1944, we were routed through Grenier Fld N.H., as our first stop....when we left Grenier Field, we were to fly to Goose Bay Labdr as our next stop....the pilot was given sealed orders at Grenier Fld, to be opened upon departure from the Contintal U.S....and out over the Atlantic, when we had departed the U.S., he opened the sealed orders and announced over the intercom, that our final destination was to be the 99th BG in Italy.

The routing was from Goose Bay to Meeks Field, Iceland, then to Valley Wales...we made landfall at Prestwick Scotland and proceeded down the west coast of Scotland to Valley.
 
When we left Valley, our next stop was to be Marrakech, Morrocco, (the flight was 10hr,10 minutes), then to Tunis, Tunisia, then to Gioia del Colle on the tip of the toe of Italy.
 
We were under the control of the Air Transport Command, as to departure times, and further movement.
 
There was a Project Number stenciled under the Data Information that was painted under the pilot's sliding window.
 
I assume that the Project number was coded to tell where our destination was.
 
Jim :-)

Mark...Nothing directly,but sometimes this has a tendency to expand in how the movement overseas worked, with the Project numbers etc...this has come up in other forums.
I am sorry if this wandered off the original subject somewhat, but, oversea movementw WERE controlled by the Air Transport Command.
 
Jim :-)
 
 

This guy at Washburn University produces a show for a public TV station.  I found this reference to Herington.
No claim here about its accuracy.
 
http://ktwu.washburn.edu/journeys/scripts/1306a.html
http://ktwu.washburn.edu/journeys/