Area Legionnaire among veterans with permanent biographical exhibits.
On Aug. 2, a special event celebrated the 85th anniversary of the dedication of Millville Army Air Field in southern New Jersey in 1941. Today the site is home to the Millville Executive Airport, but a museum commemorates the history of the air field and those who served there or passed through.
According to Lisa Jester, the museum’s executive director, the U.S. government established it as “America’s first Defense Airport.” Although the Pearl Harbor attacks were almost four months away, World War II was already blazing in Europe, and military preparedness was at the forefront. Millville was the first air field in a planned network to protect the Atlantic coast. After the United States entered the war, it became a gunnery training base, particularly for P-47 Thunderbolts, and was deactivated and turned over to the city of Millville after the war’s end.
The Millville Army Air Field Museum was established in 1988 – Jester states that one of its core missions is “to honor all veterans of any era” – and holds artifacts from the Army facility, as well as collected and donated items, from uniforms to medals to equipment. A research library and education center is located a short distance away.
The museum is also home to a number of biographical exhibits of veterans, including one for Carmen Poloff. The Pennsylvania native, who died at 105 in March 2025, had lived in nearby Bridgeton, N.J., since coming home from World War II. He enlisted in the Army in 1939 and saw action on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge and more. According to his son Stephen, Poloff was one of a vanishingly small number of pre-World War II veterans still living.
In addition to an oral history, the display features his two Purple Hearts and Distinguished Service Medal, as well as a plaque presented with a congressional proclamation when he turned 100. He was a member of American Legion Post 1000 in Trenton and had been a Legionnaire for 56 years.
An ongoing Veterans Interview Project continues to add biographies to the museum’s collection, and an annual Veterans Appreciation Day celebration draws up to 250 attendees from all war eras. Area Legion posts have been active with the museum, including Millville’s Nabb-Leslie Post 13, Theodore Roosevelt Post 4 in Vineland and Buena Vista Post 270 in Minotola. Military preparedness, at home and abroad, is part of The American Legion’s national security pillar and was woven into the organization’s DNA from the beginning.
Even today, Jester says, “preparedness is more than relevant, it’s imperative.” The museum is a permanent reminder of war and its costs, and that remembrance lingers throughout the Army town. Millville High School athletic teams compete as the Thunderbolts.
- Honor & Remembrance