He was “hailed” as the first Nashua pilot to make the supreme sacrifice in WWII. He was Paul Boire, born in Nashua on January 16, 1921, the third child and second son to George and Angelina Boire, who made their home at 108 Tolles St.in Nashua’s French Hill neighborhood. The house still stands today. He was a parishioner at Saint François-Xavier Church, attended local schools, and was a 1939 graduate of Nashua High School. He then attended St. Anselm’s College and took flying lessons through the Civil Aeronautics Administration program in Nashua. Before the U.S. entered WWII, Boire joined the Naval Reserve. 

• On July 15, 1941, he participated in an elimination flight training. The source of this information does not state where this was, but story context suggests it was at a Navy Reserve Base near Boston, MA
• On July 31, 1941, he was stationed at Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Boston, MA for basic training.
• On September 30, 1941, he was shipped to US Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Atlanta, GA
• On October 31, 1941, he was transferred to US Naval Air Station in Pensacola, FL

From there, Boire was assigned to the Navy aircraft carrier, USS Essex, CV-9. The ship, new at the time, was in the midst of its shakedown cruise, at sea, off the port of Spain in Trinidad, a small island country off the coast of Venezuela. He left the deck of the Essex on March 23, 1943, and never returned. No one is exactly sure where or how his plane was downed. His body has never been recovered.

Meanwhile, back in Nashua, in 1934, the city purchased a piece of property in the north end of the city. It had been a farm, as were many large pieces of rural Nashua property, that had been turned into a makeshift airport. There was no tower, no hangars, not even a paved runway. But the grass used for landing the small, light aircraft of the day was fairly smooth. Over the next several years, Nashua, with federal aid, paved the 2,000-foot runway and constructed administrative buildings. A hangar was constructed from bricks reused from a Nashua factory that burned in 1930 during the Crown Hill Fire. (Author’s Note: These might have come from the White Mountain Freezer Company on East Hollis St.)

In the summer of 1945, Nashua VFW Post 483 started agitating to rename the Nashua Airport in honor of Ensign Boire. On September 9, 1945, their desires were realized when the Nashua Airport adopted the name Boire Field. A dedication was held at the airport on September 9, 1945.

Today, Nashua Airport/Boire Field serves as the southernmost and busiest general aviation airport in New Hampshire, supporting flight training, charter services, corporate flights, military operations, and recreational flying. It encompasses 325 acres within a 495-acre district, featuring a 6,000-foot asphalt runway, an air traffic control tower, and over 30 aviation-related businesses.

US Service Personnel Profiles

 By Gary Ledoux July 24, 2026