Arthur K. Ladd

Major Arthur K. Ladd, service number O-10097, was an officer and pilot in the United States Army Air Corps who died in a plane crash in South Carolina in 1935. He is the namesake of Ladd Army Airfield, formerly Fairbanks Air Base, Alaska, named in his honour on 1 December 1939.

Background Arthur K. Ladd was born in Texas, U.S., on 1 November 1890. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery, Reserve Corps, at age 27, on 27 November 1917. He left that service on 19 September 1920, and the same day was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Service.

"In July 1920, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Service while simultaneously being promoted to first lieutenant in the regular Army. Following completion of both pilot and observer training, Major Ladd spent several years serving in a variety of Air Service positions."

By the mid-1930s, he was assigned at Maxwell Field, Alabama, where he was an instructor in logistics movements of troops and supplies in the Air Corps Tactical School.

Major Ladd was reassigned to Langley Field, Virginia, where he served as the assistant supply officer for the General Headquarters Air Force from its creation on 1 March 1935, working for Lt. Col. Joseph P. McNarney, supply officer of the GHQ force. '60', the 24th of 25 of the model built, of the 36th Pursuit Squadron, from Langley Field to Miami, Florida, for the eighth annual All American air maneuvers, an air race and exhibition held 13–15 December. He had departed Langley on Thursday morning, 12 December, and had spent the night at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, apparently due to adverse weather. by Major Dale V. Gaffney, the first commander, in memory of Major Arthur K. Ladd.

Ladd Elementary School, named for Major Ladd, is one of 19 elementary schools in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska.

Ladd Street, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, is named in his honour.