THOMASVILLE — Will Watt does not have to travel far to research a subject he became fascinated with long ago.

His late father, William A. “Bill” Watt Jr., was part owner of a plane. The elder Watt frequently took his son to the local airport for air trips.

“I remember seeing some of the revetments off of the airport road and asking Daddy what those were, and he said they were from the old air base from World War II,” Watt, 52, recalled. “That really fascinated me.”

In 1989, after playing golf at Country Oaks and seeing the remnants of the foundation of an air base building on hole No.13, the desire to know more was too strong.

Watt began what would turn out to be 100 hours of research on the Thomasville Army Air Field.

“Additionally, our summer vacations were always built around attending reunions around the country with Daddy’s Army Air Corps unit from when he was stationed in India. They were called the Hump pilots, because they flew missions from India over the treacherous Himalaya Mountains, the Hump, in what were by today’s standards, very primitive planes, to supply the Chinese,” Watt said.

Watt was 14 when his father died. It was then he realized how dangerous his dad’s military service duty had been and began to read about where he served.

“I’ve been interested in the air war of World War II ever since,” Watt explained.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820