 On May 1953 Fort Bragg engineers completed final plans for an expanded field and started construction the next summer.In August 1954, the runway was repaved, aprons improved and the floor was laid for field's first hangar.On June 21, 1955, the airfield was renamed in honor of Warrant Officer Herbert W. Simmons, Jr., a pilot killed on November 3, 1953, when two H-29B helicopters collided near the field.