Greenville Army Air Base opened on this site in 1942 and trained B-25 bomber crews during World War II. After 1945 it emphasized air transport and in 1951 was renamed Donaldson Air Force Base. Home to C-124 transports, it was called "The Airlift Capital of the World" for its role in the Berlin airlift, Korean War, and Cold War. Closed in 1962, it has been an industrial park since 1963. The base was named for Captain John Owen Donaldson (1897-1930), who grew up in Greenville and attended Furman University and Cornell University before joining the British Royal Air Force in World War I. He became an ace by shooting down eight enemy planes and was decorated by the United States, Great Britain, and Belgium. Donaldson was killed in a plane crash at an air show in 1930.