Business View Magazine | November 2019

151 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 Reading R eading Regional Airport, also known as General Carl A. Spaatz Field, is a full-service, public airport located three miles northwest of the City of Reading, in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Originally a small airport that opened in 1939, it was taken over by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1942, which also bought a large quantity of land surrounding the airfield and repurposed the facility into a large military base for use in the war effort. Reading Army Airfield opened on June 1, 1943, with the 309th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron as its host unit. The mission was to train tactical reconnaissance units. “The base also incorporated a 300-bed hospital,” adds Airport Manager, Terry P. Sroka. “It had training facilities for the Navy and the Army Air Corps, and it was a large maintenance facility. In late 1944, there were approximately 300 B-24s that were coming back from Europe and being decommissioned and worked on. We actually AT A GLANCE READING REGIONAL AIRPORT WHAT: A full-service, public airport WHERE: Berks County, Pennsylvania WEBSITE: www.readingairport.org R E A DY F O R M O R E