Military Aviation Firsts in San Antonio

Before, During & After World War 2

Post at San Antonio / Fort Sam Houston

Firsts: On June 7, 1876, construction began on the Fort Sam Houston Quadrangle, establishing San Antonio’s first permanent military post.¹ On March 2, 1910, the first military owned, piloted and planned airplane flight took place at Fort Sam Houston, marking the first step in the formation of the U.S. Air Force.² The first use of U.S. Army airplanes in combat took place on March 13, 1916, when the 1st Aero Squadron departed Fort Sam Houston for service into Mexico. They flew the first reconnaissance sortie on March 16th, then deployed in Mexico three days later.³ On April 5, 1917, four aircraft took off from Fort Sam Houston, flew across San Antonio, and made the first landing on the nascent Kelly airfield—a former cotton growing field that had been cleared by the U.S. Army Signal Corps.⁴ Between WWI and WWII, the 2nd Infantry Division stationed at Fort Sam Houston and the adjoining Camp Travis conducted a first-of-its-kind “Airborne Doctrine” study to develop “reference data and operational procedures of the air transport of troops.”⁵

During WWII, Fort Sam Houston housed soldiers transitioning through San Antonio, contained a prisoner of war camp, and greeted recruits.⁶

Present: Now headquarters to U.S. Army South and U.S. Army North, defense activities for all of North and South America are commanded at Fort Sam Houston, in addition to nine other General Officer commands, including both Air Force and Navy.⁷

Camp Travis / Tough ‘Ombres

The 90th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, so-called “Tough ‘Ombres,” was activated at Camp Travis on August 25, 1917. Furnished at first with troops from Texas and Oklahoma, they trained at Leon Springs Military Reservation. The course of instruction was intended to quickly turn civilians into junior officers. Officer graduates reporting to Camp Travis on August 29th were referred to as “90-day wonders,” doubling down on 90th as the course lasted approximately 90 days. Originally a National Army Cantonment at Fort Sam Houston, Camp Travis was consolidated with Fort Sam Houston in 1922.⁸ The service of the 90th in both world wars was highly regarded, and commended.

The 90th is one of the very best divisions sent over here; everyone says so. – General “Black Jack” Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917 to 1920.

Sometimes I think you don’t know how good you are. You are the best soldiers in the world. It was a great honor to command you. – General George S. Patton, Weiden, Germany, July 13, 1945.

Dodd Airfield / Fort Sam Houston

First Aviation Post: Initially a Target Range, later to be named Dodd Field, a remote section of Fort Sam Houston became an Aviation Post—San Antonio’s first—on November 26, 1915, when aircraft assigned to the 1st Aero Squadron relocated there. In the Summer of 1916, this area was identified as Remount Station #1 used by the U.S. Army to support cavalry troops assigned to Fort Sam Houston. On November 1, 1916, the 3d Aero Squadron was activated at the post flying the Curtiss JN-4. The 3d departed Remount on April 5, 1917, to establish a new airfield to the south and west of San Antonio that would become Kelly Field.⁹

Aviation returned once again to the post in June 1925, with the 12th Observation Squadron. On May 10, 1928, it was officially designated Dodd Field. On October 31, 1931, the 12th transferred to Brooks Field. The 12th would eventually replace its Douglas O-2 biplanes operating there with the larger Thomas-Morse/Consolidated O-19 aircraft. The Coast Guard Air Patrol Detachment also used Dodd briefly in the 1930s, and bombardiers from Kelly used the field for target training.

During World War II, the 63d Troop Carrier Group based C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft at Dodd Army Airfield from September though November 1942, when flying operations ended at Dodd. In 1943, a prisoner of war camp was established at the post and held Axis POWs until 1946.

Today, Fort Sam Houston encompasses what was once Dodd Field. The area comprises military housing and recreational areas—open fields that once served as the airfield.

Leon Springs Military Reservation / Camp Bullis Military Training Reservation

First Maneuvers: The Post at San Antonio was renamed Fort Sam Houston in 1890. Expansion due to the Spanish-American War in 1898, made the fort the U.S.’s largest army post. In 1906 and 1907, land was acquired establishing Leon Springs Military Reservation, and used for the first military maneuvers in 1908. These training exercises included units of the Third Cavalry, First Field Artillery, and Ninth and Nineteenth infantries, as well as signal and hospital units. The first recorded artillery firing at the reservation occurred on April 27, 1909. On June 7, 1910, the Aerounautical Detachment at Fort Sam Houston was sent to Leon Springs to assist in installing an annunciator buzzer system there.¹⁰

First Cross-country Courier Flight: The first military use of an aircraft took place on March 17, 1911, when Benjamin Foulois and Phillip O. Parmalee delivered a message from Fort Sam Houston to the Leon Springs Military Reservation.¹¹ The round trip, in a Wright “biplane sport” (Model B), took one hour and forty-five minutes flying approximately 26 miles each way.¹²

More Firsts: Shortly after the first world war came to America on April 6, 1917, eight camps were established in the U.S. to train officers for combat leadership. The first was at Leon Springs, and on May 8, 1917, three thousand volunteers assembled.¹³ “Camp Leon Springs” was used for infantry training, as a signal corps station, and the location of the first Officers’ Training School. The following year it was used for cavalry and field artillery training, and an additional Officers’ Training School series.¹⁴ During this time Dwight D. Eisenhower was stationed there as a supply officer in the 57th Infantry.

The first academy award for outstanding/best picture was given to “Wings,” starring Gary Cooper and Clara Bow, and was filmed in 1926, in part on the flying fields of Leon Springs Military Reservation.¹⁵ Primary scout aircraft flown in the film were Thomas-Morse MB-3s standing in for American-flown SPADs and Curtiss P-1 Hawks painted in German livery.

Leon Springs Military Reservation was at one time named Camp Funston, then later Camp Stanley—now assimilated with Camp Bullis. During WWII Camp Bulls was used as a training base for the 2nd, 95th and 88th Infantry Divisions.¹⁶ During maneuvers in 1942, General Danford had the 2nd Infantry Division Artillery, stationed at Fort Sam Houston, train with the observation school at Brooks Field to test the air-observation-post concept for division and corps artillery. The 2nd already had their firing ranges located at Leon Springs and the observation school had used the reservation to train their rated observers.¹⁷ Both familiar with the range, the added ripple was employment of the L-birds to facilitate observation, reconnaissance and communications.

While a post office was once established in Leon Springs in 1857, it closed in 1918.¹⁸ The old San Antonio Arsenal, originally built in 1859, was moved to Leon Springs / Camp Stanley in 1931, where it continues to serve as a U.S. Army munitions storage and testing facility. The city limits of San Antonio, now abutting Camp Bullis to the northeast, includes the unincorporated community of Leon Springs. Camp Bullis ALS Airport, 9TX5, a military airport with an Approach Light System (hence the name) and no tower control, remains at the reservation.

Alamo ‘Army Air’ Field / San Antonio International Airport

San Antonio International Airport, KSAT, was founded in 1941, as a municipal airport. The then undeveloped land was north of the city limits. During WWII a large portion of the northeast section of the 1,200 acres became Alamo Field, and was used by the U.S. Army Air Forces as a training base. It served as an auxiliary airfield to Brooks Field from 1942 until 1945.¹⁹

In 1944, the airport’s name was changed from San Antonio Municipal Airport to the present San Antonio International Airport. At the end of World War II, the Alamo Field portion of the airport was no longer needed by the military, and thus returned to the City of San Antonio for civil use.

Kelly Field / Kelly Air Force Base / Lackland Air Force Base

Claim: Kelly Field is the oldest, continuously active military airfield in the U.S. Air Force.²⁰ The first plane, in a flight of four Curtiss JN-4 Jennys, landed at Kelly Field in April 1917.²¹

It was on April 9th [5th], 1917, that four airplanes arose from the hangars at the old Remount Station (at present Camp Travis [Remount Post was further north]), and after flying across the City, alighted on what is now Kelly Field. Their pilots were men well known in early Aviation circles, namely: “Eddie Stinson,” a civilian instructor and a brother of Katharine Stinson, the world-famous aviatrix; Capt. Davidson; Capt. McDonald; Capt. Spotts; Lieut. Bagnell; and one other man whose name is not recalled. They made their landing in a cotton-field, an oasis amid a boundless stretch of waste covered by the prickley-pear cactus and mesquite. Tent hangars had been hurriedly erected there previously and in these the machines were stored for the night, while the men themselves made their beds upon the ground by the sides of their machines. This was the initial trip of airplanes to Kelly Field, but the actual formal establishment of the Field did not occur until May 7, when seven hundred men arrived. One week later, however, there were four thousand men on the Field. This was just a little over a week after the U.S. had taken her formal and memorable stand against the Hun and what he represented. Men came in at a rapid rate, and soon Major Dodd, of the Aeronautical Office in Washington, arrived to take charge of the definite organization of the Field. The contract for its construction was granted to Stone and Webster and with lightning-like rapidity the ground was cleared and almost as quickly as the cotton and mesquite disappeared there arose in their stead scores of buildings—hangars, barracks, mess halls. Officers’ quarters, warehouses, machine shops and all the necessary adjuncts of a first-class Flying Field.²²

WWII: When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, the need for more pilots, bombardiers and navigators led to the expansion of the recently established Army Air Forces, on June 20, 1941, and the Advanced Flying School based at Kelly Field. By the summer of 1942, Kelly Field’s primary functions became that of maintenance and supply as flight training moved elsewhere.²³

Today: Kelly Field Airport, KSKF, presently supports flight operations of the C-5 Galaxy of Air Force Reserve Command’s 433d Airlift Wing, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon of the Texas Air National Guard, in addition to providing logistics support for various military functions. Port San Antonio is a multi-use campus that oversees areas of the former vast complexes of Kelly and Lackland Air Force Bases on behalf of the city.²⁴

Stinson Field / Stinson Municipal Airport

Claim: Stinson Municipal Airport, KSSF, is the second oldest general aviation airport in continuous operation in the U.S. It was established in 1915 by the Stinson family (Marjorie, Katherine and Eddie) to create the Stinson School of Flying—the basis for the Airport’s official 3-letter identifier KSSF. The flying school remained in operation until America entered World War I, and civilian flying was banned.²⁵

WWII: During World War II, the U.S. Air Force took control of Stinson Flying Field, utilized it as a training base, and constructed more than 100 buildings, some of which are still standing today.²⁶

Today: Stinson Municipal Airport serves general aviation and is the reliever airport for San Antonio International.

Brooks Field / Brooks Air Force Base

Notable: From its founding, Brooks Field was used to train cadets in the Curtiss JN-4 aircraft. Formally opened in 1918, it was the home to the Army flying Instructor’s School.²⁷ At the end of WWI, Brooks became home to the Air Corps Balloon and Airship School in May 1919. Flight training in San Antonio was later consolidated, in 1922, to Brooks Field for Primary Training and Kelly Field for Advanced Training.²⁸

WWII: While serving as the Primary Flying School (11th School Group) for the Army Air Service (forerunner to the Air Force) and Army Air Corps, the unit moved to Randolph in 1931. Brooks Field then became the new home for the Aerial Observation Center. During World War II, Brooks Field housed the School for Combat Observers and the Advanced Flying School (Observation).²⁹

Today: Hangar 9 stands as the only WWI era aircraft hangar listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed in December 1917, and January 1918, it housed the aforementioned JN-4 “Jennys.” The hangar was one of 16 constructed at Brooks and is recognized as the oldest existing wooden airplane hangar on a U.S. Air Force installation. Built at the onset as temporary construction, Hangar 9’s solid wood frame design ensured its longevity. A bolted wood truss, gambrel style roof supports large sliding wooden doors at each end that can be opened to the full width of the building.³⁰

Randolph Field / Randolph Air Force Base / Martindale Airfield

The Air Corps Act of 1926, which changed the name of the Army Air Service to the Army Air Corps, led to the opening of Randolph Field in 1931. At the start of WWII, Randolph was the largest flight training facility in the world. Still operating today, Randolph Air Force Base, KRND, has been a flight training facility for the U.S. Army Air Corps, Army Air Forces, and Air Force throughout its history.

Built during WWII, Martindale Auxiliary Army Airfield #4 first served as one of eight satellite airfields to Randolph. Today, Martindale (AHP) Army Heliport, KMDA, is a Texas Army National Guard rotary wing flight training facility in San Antonio’s east side.

In 2015, the first T-38C Talon landed at Randolph Air Force Base Auxiliary Field, KSEQ³¹. Also known, in long form, as Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Seguin Auxiliary Airfield, the airfield is 40 miles east of KRND. Following a three-year reconstruction project, KSEQ serves members of the 560th Flying Training Squadron and is crucial for “touch and go” training that qualifies fighter and bomber pilots as instructor pilots using the Northrop T-38C Talon and Boeing–Saab T-7 Red Hawk aircraft.

Hondo Army Airfield / Hondo Air Base

Hondo Army Airfield was constructed only four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. An ill-equipped and understaffed Army Air Corps Navigator school, at its start, moved to Kelly Field in July 1941. The school grew quickly there and moved 40 miles west to Hondo, Texas, on July 2, 1942. Hondo Army Airfield was officially activated two days later on July 4th.³² Hondo’s navigation school was the largest Air Corps navigation school in the world at the time. The most commonly used aircraft at the Hondo training base was the Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator, a.k.a. C-45 Expeditor, a militarized version of the early Beech Model 18 light transport first built in 1937.

Following WWII Hondo was briefly a B-29 Flight Engineer school and the site of a B-24 Pilot transition school. The field was shut down in December 1945. From 1951–1958 it was called Hondo Air Base and housed numerous T-6 Texan, T-28 Trojan, and T-34 Mentor aircraft for pilot training. In the Spring of 1973, the Air Force began a flight-screening program at Hondo using the T-41 Mescalero, a militarized version of the civilian Cessna 172.

Today the city-owned airport is called South Texas Regional Airport at Hondo, KHDO, where general aviation flights and various commercial enterprises strive to ensure its long-term viability. The airport’s four runways can accommodate a wide range of aircraft and the site has hosted numerous aviation-related events.

---

References:

1. Joint Base San Antonio – JBSA Heritage (PDF) ↩︎
2. U.S. Army Center of Military History – The Fort Sam Houston Museum ↩︎
3. Joint Base San Antonio – JBSA Heritage (PDF) ↩︎
4. Kelly Field in the Great World War, Lt H.D. Kroll ↩︎
5. Military Historical and Reenactment Association – Prelude to WWII ↩︎
6. Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston (PDF) ↩︎
7. U.S. Army Center of Military History – The Fort Sam Houston Museum ↩︎
8. The 90th Division Association – War veterans organization ↩︎
9. Forgotten Fields of America: World War II Bases and Training Then and Now, Lou Thole ↩︎
10. Aeronautics magazine, August 1910 ↩︎
11. Texas State Historical Association – Leon Springs Military Reservation ↩︎
12. The Settlement of Leon Springs: From Prussia to Persia, Marlene Richardson and Jeanne Dixon ↩︎
13. Texas Historical Commission – First Officers Training Camp Historical Marker ↩︎
14. Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War, Vol. 3, Part 2, (CMH Pub 23-4) ↩︎
15. Old Spanish Trail Centennial Association, Charlotte Kahl ↩︎
16. The Portal to Texas History – Camp Bullis ↩︎
17. Eyes of Artillery, Edgar F. Raines, Jr. (CMH Pub 70-31) ↩︎
18. Texas State Historical Association – Leon Springs, TX ↩︎
19. San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation – An International Airport ↩︎
20. Texas State Historical Association – Kelly Air Force Base ↩︎
21. Joint Base San Antonio – Meet the JN-4 Jenny ↩︎
22. Kelly Field in the Great World War, Lt H.D. Kroll ↩︎
23. Air Force Civil Engineer Center – Kelly History ↩︎
24. Air Force Civil Engineer Center – Kelly History ↩︎
25. San Antonio International Airport – Stinson Municipal Airport (PDF) ↩︎
26. San Antonio International Airport – A Century of Aviation ↩︎
27. Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War, Vol. 3, Part 2, (CMH Pub 23-4) ↩︎
28. Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939, Maurer, Maurer ↩︎
29. Texas State Historical Association – Brooks Air Force Base ↩︎
30. National Park Service – Hangar 9 ↩︎
31. Joint Base San Antonio – First T-38C Talon lands ↩︎
32. Forgotten Fields of America, Lou Thole ↩︎

Note: This posting and the associated copy, phrasing and statements are the property of Alamo Liaison Squadron. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited without prior consent.