Wings Over San Antonio

By Mel Brown

In March 1910, Lt. Benjamin Foulois was ordered to Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas, with a used Wright Brothers aeroplane and a small contingent of enlisted men. His mission was to teach himself how to operate this primitive flying machine and begin demonstrating the practical uses it might have for the United States Army. This history is chronicled through in-depth captions and over 200 images as author Mel Brown tells the story of how San Antonio eventually became the cradle of military aviation. Mastery of the air would take time, equipment, and lives as the demanding flight path led from the early trials at Ft. Sam to the eventual establishment of four flying centers around the city. Working through trial and error, the aeronautic pioneers and first combat aviators convinced the military that the building of an American air arm was needed; thus the legend of the U.S. Air Force at San Antonio was born. Using many photographs never before published, the author tells the rich history of the air force bases in San Antonio, including Kelly, Brooks, and Randolph Fields. Also included are images of some of aviation's first heroes, such as Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and Clair Chennault.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Feb 15, 2001
• ISBN: 9781439628041

Mel Brown

Mel Brown is a professional aviation artist, with works hanging in the Pentagon and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He is a member of the Vintage Aviation Historical Foundation, and author of another Arcadia title, San Antonio in Vintage Postcards.

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INTRODUCTION

San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston was chosen as the site for the Army’s early aviation efforts when Lt. Benjamin Foulois and a small group of enlisted men were ordered there in 1910. They brought with them a Wright Brothers’ Flyer, which was designated Army Signal Corps Aero plane #1, and began flying it from the north end of the Cavalry Post parade ground in March of that year. The young lieutenant and his men would learn the craft and science of aviation by correspondence with the factory in Dayton, Ohio. They would experiment with flight on #1 and a loaned B-Model Wright Flyer over the next several months. By the spring of 1911, three more young officers and a third machine, a Curtiss Type IV, joined Foulois. This aircraft was destroyed in a crash in May of that year which killed its pilot, Lt. George Kelly; flying was ordered off the Post. After being moved around to and from locations in Maryland and Georgia over the next few years, Army aviation returned to San Antonio and Fort Sam in November of 1915, and it has been in the Alamo City ever since.

Mild winters and its proximity to the U.S./Mexico border made San Antonio the logical choice for a center of military aviation. World War I would bring a need for the training of large numbers of aviators, and thus began Kelly Field in 1916 and Brooks Fields in 1917. The Army’s eventual need for a larger and more sophisticated facility initiated the construction of Randolph Field, which was dedicated in June 1930. It became known as The West Point of the Air so that through the ’30s, San Antonio and its three training bases were indeed America’s most prolific spawning ground for aviators. World War II brought many changes in mission and function to these three sites and the establishment of a fourth installation, which became Lackland Air Force Base for basic training. The Alamo City’s uniqueness grew in stature as she became home to the largest concentration of military aviation in North America. The history of these flight centers and the people who passed through them is rich and colorful and would fill many books. The following images will hopefully provide some notion of the heritage and traditions brought forth over the past eight decades by these proud and patriotic Americans.

This history is a modest attempt to present a snapshot of the early years, especially, as memories of them fade into the past. Military flight is unique, because its mission is one of supremacy not merely over nature but indeed over any adversary that asserts itself. With this in mind, the history herein becomes one of self-sacrifice and the call to duty that separates these endeavors of flight from those of pleasure or commerce.

This fact colors San Antonio’s history in a way completely foreign to most other large metropolitan areas in North America. It is a very historic city in its own right, but the stories of these bases and the military culture which has come with them gives the Alamo City a distinctive Americanism seen in few other places. Add to this the cross-cultural aspect of the area, and this flight history takes on an epic quality that transcends these images, names, and dates.

As San Antonio enters the 21st century, the future is as full of promise as it always has been. Kelly Air Force Base is being realigned and downsized, so that its presence will be much different than that of its first 84 years. Brooks Air Force Base will also be altered to fit the Air Force’s needs in the millennium, while Randolph remains busy with the training of aviators, now in the aerospace age. Alas, the history and heritage of Lackland AFB could not be covered within these pages. Basic training is the incubator from which the fledglings for all of the USAF’s career fields spring. The Gateway to the Air Force has done an exemplary job for over 50 years of generating the basic airmen who go on to make America’s aerospace arm the best in the world. Hopefully, there will always be Air Force wings over San Antonio, as they are as much a part of this city as the legend, the people, and the spirit that this nation needs to be as great as it can be.

One

FORT SAM HOUSTON

ONE MAN—ONE AEROPLANE. March 2, 1910, was the day at Fort Sam Houston that a young Lt. Benjamin Foulois, with only three hours of instruction from the Wright brothers, began the long history of military aviation in San Antonio, Texas. The machine he flew was this used A-model Wright Flyer. He was taught by correspondence with the famous brothers. Foulois had not been taught to take off or land, so it was an experiment indeed even after crude wheels had been attached and the top elevator moved to the rear to lessen the bucking tendency. Later he would say, Every flight I have made down here has been more or less hazardous, and he made 61 of