Editing Del Monte Airfield (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Landing Fields - Philipines - Mindanao Island - NARA - 68160176.jpg|thumb|left|Aerial view of Del Monte Landing Field, 1936]]

Del Monte Airfield was first selected in September 1941 as an emergency landing strip on Mindanao, capable of landing four-engine [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] heavy bombers during the May to October wet season. It was built on a natural meadow on the [[Del Monte Foods|Del Monte Pineapple Corporation]] plantation along the [[Sayre Highway]], in the municipality of Maluko (now [[Manolo Fortich]]) of [[Bukidnon]] Province in northern Mindanao. The [[población]] of the rural municipality was nearby. The airfield was established as part of the build-up of United States military forces in the Philippines due to the rising tensions with the [[Japanese Empire]].<ref name="Edmonds">Edmonds, Walter D. ''They Fought With What They Had: The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, 1941–1942'' (1951, 1982), pp. 54-63</ref>

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