Harry S. Truman Airport on St. Thomas?

[Teresa_Rae]

We'll be leaving soon for our 8th trip to St. John and our flight info has never before called the STT airport "Harry S. Truman" Airport, until now.

I freaked a little when I saw this from United in my inbox today:

O'Hare International (ORD) to Harry S. Truman (STT)

Apparently that's the old name that hasn't been in use since 1990?

We usually fly United and it's always been called Cyril E. King airport. Interesting.

[Joppa]

That is interesting. I wonder if the locals still call it that. I love learning bits of history about these islands. Now I will have to look into who Cyril E. King is and why he/she was important enough to change the name of the airport.
I see you left your heart in central IL. I used to live in a little place called Greenvalley a long time ago.

[hugo]

Little by little, anything that was named for someone from elsewhere has been renamed for someone from here. In this case, it was well deserved: Cyril King was our second elected governor, in the '70s, and the great hope for reform of the corrupt system that was in place since the late 50's. Unfortunately, the system was to much for him, and he died of cancer, in 1978 before completing his first term as governor. His memory is still cherished, perhaps particularly by St. Johnians. The airport was renamed in the '80s, as I recall, so someone has a really outdated reference !

[Teresa_Rae]

I see you left your heart in central IL. I used to live in a little place called Greenvalley a long time ago.

Small world! My husband and I are in the process of leaving the Chicagoland rat race and moving back to central IL...and Tazewell County at that! I grew up in McLean County and my family has farmed for well over 100 years in Marshall County. Are you from central IL originally or did you just live there?

[Exit Zero]

The airport, called Bourne Field at the time was renamed for President Harry Truman after his visit to St Thomas Feb. 22 1948.
It was a naval airfield and the large Quonset Hut structure that was a hangar was converted to the commercial terminal - when the new airport buildings were built and the old terminal razed , the new facility was named after the late Gov. Cyril King who had campaigned hard for a better airport especially after the terrible American Airlines crash during Carnival 1976 .
It really was a wonderful cavernous old hanger with only small areas enclosed including Sparkey's Airport Bar which was the only air conditioned space.

[brenda]

Same thing happened to me. US Air changed our flight times (only by minutes) and the new confirmation said HS Truman airport. Weird, never had it say that before.

[Joppa]

Hugo and Exit Zero thanks for the history. I did a google search and was able to find a little info, most of it from his pre-governor days. I find it very curious that an airport was named after Truman just because he visited. It was right to rename it after Gov.King.

Teresa Rae I lived there for about a year and am originally from MA. Being away from the ocean was very hard for me. I had no sense of direction at all. My Sons Dad still lives there and so my son had a big extended family there and I have a few friends that I am still in touch with.I haven't visited in years but am seriously considering a quick trip sometime next year.

[Teresa_Rae]

Teresa Rae I lived there for about a year and am originally from MA. Being away from the ocean was very hard for me. I had no sense of direction at all. My Sons Dad still lives there and so my son had a big extended family there and I have a few friends that I am still in touch with.I haven't visited in years but am seriously considering a quick trip sometime next year.

My husband went to Dartmouth so I'm familiar with New Hampshire. His first job out of college was in Boston so we lived out there for a year. Not being able to use my agriculture degree in MA, I was a nanny for a wealthy family who had a second home in Rockport. The ocean was beautiful but SO COLD. I love the ocean but I want it to be 80 degrees