Lawson Army Airfield

Lawson Army Airfield is a military airport located at Fort Benning in Chattahoochee County, Georgia, south of the city of Columbus, Georgia. It is Fort Benning's primary Force Projection Platform.FacilitiesLawson Army Airfield has one runway: Runway 15/33: 10,000 ft. x 150 ft. (3,048 x 46 m), Surface: AsphaltHistoryOriginsIn late 1918, the U.S. Army established a new camp for the Infantry School of Arms south of Columbus on the Bussey Plantation. The camp was named in honor of Henry Lewis Benning, a Columbus native who served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War and later as a justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. The Army created a rudimentary landing field at Benning in 1919 with the initial mission of determining if data obtained by balloon observation would benefit the infantry. The airfield consisted of two small hangars that housed the balloon unit.In 1922, the Army made the facility a permanent Army post renaming the camp Fort Benning. From 1921 to 1931, aircraft from Maxwell Field near Montgomery, Alabama occasionally utilized the airfield for maneuvers and other purposes. In 1928, the balloon unit transferred and the airfield was without any permanent occupation for three years.