battalion, a remount depot a bakery company, a troop transport train, a telegraph battalion, a field signal battalion, a photo section and a sales commissary unit. Self-propelled balloons were developed at Post Field in 1937. These balloons were designed to be powered to an observation point, their motors removed and observation baskets were attached. The famous balloon hangar, moved from Moffett Field to Fort Sill in 1934, was intended to house dirigibles. The unique "cross" on the side of the building has no religious significance – it is part of an air circulation system designed to dry balloon fabric and parachutes. Balloons were assigned to the field until 1941. The most famous balloon pilot trained at Fort Sill was Gen. Barksdale Hamlett, Jr. This four-star general was the commandant of the American sector of Berlin during the 1958 Berlin Crisis, became the vice chief of staff of the Army, played a key role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the escalation of the Vietnam War. One of the U.S. Air Force's most advanced technical units, the 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska., traces its lineage through the 1st Balloon Company. An enduring legacy – Fort Sill aviation The 44th Aero Squadron was assigned to support the Field Artillery School at Post Field in August 1922. It was reassigned on July 31st, 1927 to the Air Corps Training Center. The unit today is not active. It was replaced by the 88th Observation Squadron, which moved from Brooks Field, Texas, to Fort Sill in Sept. 1928. The 88th left Post Field in 1931 and today is known as the 436th Training Squadron out of Dyess AFB, Texas. In the 1930s the WPA and Army built several new permanent structures to replace the World War I-era tar paper buildings. Building 4908, the aircraft maintenance hangar built in 1932, is the oldest building at the airfield. Field artillery officers and the Olympics Fort Sill, Oklahoma and the field artillery branch saw their only Olympic medals awarded in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Lieutenant Richard Mayo The first medal came from a totally unexpected source – a wiry field artillery lieutenant who took part in the pentathlon. In those years for the pentathlon, the competitors completed five different events on consecutive days (horse riding, fencing, pistol shooting, a 200-meter freestyle swim and a 3 kilometer cross-country run). In