Location
Located on Palmyra Island.

Construction
Preliminary surveys were made by the US Navy in 1938 for an airifeld at this location. The first party to begin construction sailed from Honolulu November 14, 1939. US Navy undertook constructing. The runway was made from crushed coral, and expanded during the war.

Wartime Usage
No aircraft were based here, rather transited thur this strip on their way to the South or Southwest Pacific during overseas flights.

Clarance Le Mieux recalls:
"[Arrived in early January 1942] I was assigned to a B-17 going to Australia with gun chargers they had ordered. The group of B-17s we were going with landed at Christmas Island, and they could not accomidate us there because the airfield was too small. We went to Palmyra instead. It was a base still under construction, by a Coast Guard civilian contractor. It rained, when we landed they said there was a submarine spotted off the end of the runway and to get out of there. By the time we went back to the plane we were wading thru water it had rained that much. One engine would not start, I took off the magneto to dry it off but that did not work."

Naming Honor
The airfield on Palmyra was renamed 'Lowe Field', in honor of USMC Sgt William A. Lowe, a member of VMD-254, who was killed on the island on November 23, 1943 and is buried at 'Honolulu Memorial Cemetery' (Punchbowl).

Today
The runway has been disused and is partially overgrown.

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Last Updated
December 9, 2008