Panagarh Airport (Panagarh)

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Nearly 71 years ago, these two US citizens were at work several thousands of kilometers away from their homes at an obscure place called Panagarh in the eastern part of India. While Johnson seems to have been a resident of Baldwin, Long Island, New York, Kleckner was apparently from Allentown, Pennsylvania. These two were among the hundreds of others working to create an air base at Panagarh on July 28, 1944 for operations in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre. All this is evident from a stretch of concrete on which the two men decided to leave their palm impressions in what was probably tar and scribble their names, the places they came from and the date. The concrete slab is now on display at Air Force Station Panagarh.

The United States Army Air Force used this air base for their B-24 Liberators. It is also rumoured that one of the two aircraft that dropped atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki took a refuelling break at this air base in West Bengal. However, there are no records to confirm this. After the Americans left, the airport was taken over by the National Airports Authority of India. In 1964, the Indian Air Force (IAF) reclaimed it and two fighter squadrons operated from there during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. After the war, it was returned to NAAI till 1986 when the IAF took it back. Today, it is on its way to become a strategic air base from where the IAF and Army can launch special airborne operations. Apart from advanced radar, the air base will also be armed with surface to air missiles.