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Colonel John W. Egan's military accomplishments span over three decades. From being a member of the first class at Rockwell Field to participating in an exercise to test the Army Air Corps capability of bombing naval vessels at sea, Egan has done it all. The late 1930s brought larger and faster planes that were long on range. The question now was who would be guiding these birds, and how? The Air Corps occasional cram-it-in navigation and bombardier teaching had to give way to meet the technological advances of the new aircraft.
In 1938, Egan was charged with the responsibility of outlining how, where, and why navigator and bombardier rating schools were needed throughout the country. Using extensive data and maps, he laid out prospective sites, all of which were chosen. Selman was one of his site choices, and the rest is history.
The year 1941 brought the opening of the first three Army Air Corps Schools of Navigation at Mather, Turner, and Hando. Egan was assigned to Mather as Director of Navigation and Training. After Pearl Harbor time was spent not only running the navigation schools, but also in expending the mission, writing curricula, and conferring on the possibility of America leading a global air, naval, and ground war.
A transfer was in order in 1943 and Egan became Selman Field's third commanding officer replacing Colonel Earl Naiden. There were 11,000 on the Selman Reservation now, and still growing!
In 1944 Egan was once again reassigned, this time to Ellington Field as Air Inspector. This gentleman, who in his military career had experienced virtually the whole of the history of flight, and who opened one of the first navigation schools, was now the last commander of a World War II navigation school. The war was over...in 1945 all navigation training ceased.
Colonel John W. Egan has been told how lucky he was to be in the right place at the right time. We are grateful that Selman Field was one of those places. He acknowledges that it was a "long and interesting flight for one lone eagle. But for me and the rest of us who lived it, it was the only place, and the only time."
There is no doubt that Egan's tenure at Selman greatly enhanced navigation training. Be it luck, fate or divine intervention, we were indeed blessed to have Colonel Egan as our Commanding Officer. He put into practice his motto of "Keep 'em Flying....On Course."
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