Qualla: Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: Introduction https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit United States Army Air Forces, Public domain. The glider had no engine. Eighty-three feet of wingspan, 4,000 pounds empty, plywood and steel tubing and doped canvas — and inside it, thirteen fully equipped soldiers, or a jeep with a four-man crew, or a 75mm howitzer with its ammunition. To fly it into combat, a C-47 Dakota tow plane connected by a 350-foot rope would haul the loaded glider over enemy territory, the pilot would release the rope, and then he would land in a field that may or may not exist, may or may not be cratered, may or may not have Germans waiting at the treeline. Then, because there was no taking off again, the pilot grabbed his M1 carbine and fought as infantry until the position was either taken or retaken. Between June 1944 and October 1945, more glider pilots were trained at Laurinburg-Maxton, North Carolina, than at any other base in the world.

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: A Town Asked for an Airfield https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain. It began as a hopeful local petition. In December 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, citizens of Laurinburg and Maxton learned the federal government wanted to put a training airfield somewhere in the area. Local governments wrote to Washington begging for it. The deal that emerged i...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-a-town-asked-for-an-airfield.mp3 0:06 2 full Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: What They Trained For https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain. Gliders are not romantic in 1944. They are expendable. The Waco CG-4A could fly a single mission and was often left in the field afterward, too damaged or too far from a runway to recover. The pilots were expendable in a related sense — they had no second chance, no go-around, no...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-what-they-trained-for.mp3 0:06 3 full Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: Snatch Pick-up at Lee's Mill https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain. One technique trained here became famous. A glider on the ground — perhaps loaded with wounded soldiers — could be retrieved by a C-47 flying low overhead. The C-47 trailed a grappling hook on a long line; the line caught a loop strung between two upright poles in front of the gl...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-snatch-pick-up-at-lees-mill.mp3 0:06 4 full Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: Quick Death, Quick Closing https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain. By April 1945, the base population was around ten thousand. By the end of September — five weeks after Japan's surrender — it had fallen to 914. By October 30, 1945, the base was closed. The hangars stayed. The runways stayed. The pursuit-driving track that North Carolina Highway...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-quick-death-quick-closing.mp3 0:06 5 full Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base: What the Maps Don't Say https://qualla.com/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base/ Photo credit Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain. There is a tension in the postwar memory of the base that the official history acknowledges only briefly. The county is Lumbee country. The relationship between Lumbee people and the North Carolina Highway Patrol — the agency that used the airfield for pursuit-driving practice fo...

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]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/p/t/laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-wp/dnpt-laurinburg-maxton-army-air-base-what-the-maps-dont-say.mp3 0:06 6 full