Since flight training programs were accompanied
by accidents, it seemed logical to place the School of
Aviation Medicine where air training occurred. Orders
directing the moving of the school from New York to
Brooks Field were issued by the Secretary of War in
mid-Junc 1926. When the school came to Brooks, it
was given the big balloon hangar. In this cavernous
shelter, the school was to do all that was necessary to
determine flying effectiveness. In 1927 the school
moved into new quarters. The building was the first
permanent structure erected at Brooks.

When builders completed Randolph Ficld in 1931,
the decision was made to relocate the School of
Aviation Medicine and the primary flying school to
the new facility. At a time when other air fields were
receiving new programs and the fortunes of the Air
Corps in general scemed to be on the rise, Brooks had
lost its two most important organizations.

The school continued to train physicians in
aviation medicine. However, by 1935 rescarch in
aviation medicine became increasingly centered at the
newly formed Acromedical Laboratory in Dayton,
Ohio. Harry G. Armstrong helped found that labora-
tory and did much to develop aviation research. Later
the school and laboratory would unite to help form the
Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks Air Force
Base.

In 1945 the School of Air Evacuation merged with
the School of Aviation Medicine and began an
expanded role in teaching acromedical evacuation
concepts to nurses, medical technicians, and physi-
cians. With the establishment of the US Air Force as a
separate service in 1947, the focus on aviation
medicine as a unique specialty was renewed

The time was right to establish an acromedical
center. One of the major reasons for setting up a
center was that the seriously ill and injured
flyers were indiscriminately scattered among
various hospitals not under Air Force control
Consequently, several important studies that might
have improved medical service were never carricd out
By creating a center, the Air Force would have a place
for the first time to study such important conditions in
relation to flying accidents as flying fatigue, nervous
instability, accident proncness, fear of flying, post
traumatic head injuries, epileptic cquivalents, and
psychoneuroscs

60

Both the School of Aviation Medicine at
Randolph AFB and the Aeromedical Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, were involved in
acromedical research. The Air Force chose Brooks as
the location for its new aeromedical center because the
base had plenty of empty land on which to build the
center, and it was fairly close to Randolph, making the
school’s move easy and relatively inexpensive.

In advance of the school’s transfer, officials at
Brooks officially broke ground for the new facility in
May 1957. Work began on the rescarch institute, the
academic building, the altitude laboratory, and the
research shops (photographic laboratory, television
studios, and similar services allied with research and
teaching). Even with the new facilitics, some of the
staff offices and laboratories spilled over into 36 of
the old buildings and hangars on Brooks.

The medical center was not quite the unified
institution that planners had hoped to achieve.
However, it contained all the necessary elements for
medical research, teaching, and clinical treatment By
linking thesc together, the center could test, discover,
and disseminate improved procedures for the care of
flyers. On November 14, 1959, Senate Majority
Leader Lyndon B. Johnson journeyed to Brooks to
dedicate the new Acrospace Medical Center

The mid-1960s saw the addition of several
laboratory facilities. A new radiobiology laboratory
allowed for research on ionizing radiation like that
encountered in space. A biotelemetry laboratory sup-
ported experiments designed to transmit and receive
biomedical data from remote experiment sites, and a
biosystems rescarch laboratory supported research in
toxicology, pharmacology, biochemistry, and micro-
biology, as they related to aerospace operations. A
new training facility opened, and late in the decade,
the school added radiation science and laser hazards
laboratorics.

In the carly 1970s, the center’s USAF
Epidemiology Laboratory moved from Lackland to
Brooks.

With the cmergence of the Acrospace Medical
Division in 1961, the USAF School of Acrospace
Medicine (renamed in 1962) together with other
organizations combined acrospace medical research,
education, and clinical treatment under one center


flying units while the Air Corps oversaw logistics and
training. At the same time, the Air Corps began stress-
ing all-purpose training instead of channeling cadets
into specialties. Specialtics did not disappear immed-
lately, but future bomber pilots in particular spent
more time in pursuit and attack aircraft while at Kelly

aircraft available at the field. Active duty bomber
units began taking delivery of the remarkable Martin
B-10, a fast, twin-engine, all metal monoplane with
retractable landing gear, and a powered turret, in
1934. It was not long before the possibilitics of the
Boeing four-engine prototype, which would become
the B-17, further altered
Air Corps concepts of
bombing.

But, during these
years, cadets still made do
with the Keystone and
Martin twin-engine
biplanes of the 1920s.
Pursuit students relied
on the delightful P-12, an
acrobatic aircraft which
was, however, far slower
than the B-10, and obser-

In the 1930s, Curtiss-Martin NBS-1 twin-engine bombers were still in use at

the advanced flying school at Kelly Field.

One reason for this change was an increased
emphasis on the role of the bomber in the emergent
doctrine developed at the Air Corps Tactical
School at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Another factor
was the increasing age and obsolescence of the

Late in the 1930s, BT-9 trainers began arriving at Kelly’s advanced flying
school.

26

vation students still flew
the Douglas A-25, a
biplane derived from the
earlier O-2, Only cadets in
the attack section had the
benefit of a relatively new
aircraft: the A-12,a
monoplane with fixed landing gear, powered with a
690-horscpower Wright engine, introduced in 1934

Lacking a true advanced trainer, the Air Corps
opted in 1935 for the Seversky BT-8, a single-
engine monoplane with a
fixed undercarriage
Extremely rugged (one
cadet later recalled the
pairing of the P-12 and
the BT-8 as the com-
bination of “a feather and
a truck”), the BT-8
sufficed, if only just. It
was joined on the Kelly
flightline the following
year by the similar BT-9,
but more advanced air-
craft did not arrive at the
field until funds began to
flow more frecly and
Army aviation began
expanding in the last
years of the decade



Preface

San Antonio, Texas, is the home of a handful of military installations whose names are legendary in the annals
of military aviation--Fort Sam Houston, Kelly Field, Brooks Field, Randolph Field, and the Johnny-come-lately
of the group, the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, now known as Lackland Air Force Base.

The Alamo City’s ties to military aviation go back to 1910 when Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois arrived at Fort
Sam Houston with the Wright Flyer, the Army’s only airplane, packed in crates. There, he literally taught
himself how to fly and shared his new-found knowledge with a small band of adventurous Army officers. Like
most youngsters, military aviation underwent some growing pains before becoming firmly established in San Antonio,

That happened with the founding of Kelly Field, where the first aircraft landed on April 5, 1917, making Kelly
the oldest, continuously active military airfield in the United States Air Force. Within a matter of months, the
new airfield was providing training for hundreds of flying cadets (the more familiar term “aviation cadet” did
not come into use until 1941).

In the summer of 1917, as Kelly Field was flooded with recruits, Army aviators surveyed a field south of San
Antonio as a potential site for another airfield, Brooks Field, which opened in 1918. Brooks trained those who
had already earned their wings to be instructor pilots. A few months after the armistice, the school at Brooks
closed its doors, only to reopen them in 1922.

For the next five years, all Army pilots received their wings in San Antonio, going through primary training at
Brooks Field and advanced training at Kelly Field. Landmark legislation in 1926 led to the construction of
another major flying training installation in the San Antonio area--Randolph Field. Dedicated in 1930, Randolph
took over primary training from Brooks and March Fields. With the opening of the flying school at Randojph,
San Antonio once again became the home of all Air Corps pilot training.

In 1942 the War Department separated a portion of Kelly Field from the main base and made it an independent
installation--the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center. For most of World War II, the center served as a preflight
school and classification center, and when it was over the mission shifted to basic military training--a mission
forever linked with Lackland Air Force Base.

Since World War I], Kelly, Brooks, Randolph, and Lackland have all remained important contributors to the Air
Force’s mission. Each base, however, adapted its mission in response to the ever-changing challenges of the
post-World War Il era. These years, marked first by the onset of the Cold War, moved inexorably through
regionai conflicts in Korea, Southeast Asia, and the Persian Gulf, and culminated in the disintegration of the
Soviet empire. The end of the Cold War most severely impacted Kelly, among San Antonio's bases, when it was
announced the air logistics center would close and the base would realign with adjoining Lackland Air Force
Base in 2001. At the same time, the other bases also had to adapt to the changing world order.

This history was a collaborative effort by Air Force historians in the San Antonio area. The narrative and photos
were drawn from official histories and other published works. Ms Ann Hussey and Dr Robert Browning from
the San Antonio Air Logistics Center history office wrote the sections dealing with Fort Sam Houston and
Kelly. Dr Ed Alcott, historian for the Human Systems Center, was the principal author of the section on Brooks.
Mr Edgar Sneed wrote most of the material on the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center and Lackland. Mr
Thomas Manning, Ms Pat Parrish, and Mr Dick Emmons from the Air Education and Training Command
history office were the principal authors of the history of Randolph. Ms Parrish brought together the varied
pieces of the puzzle in laying out the publication. Also assisting in the overall effort were Mr Dick Burkard, Mr
Bruce Ashcroft, Mrs Edith Taylor, and Ms Kathlyn Cosgrove from the AETC history office.

Thomas A, Manning
Command Historian Revised September 2000



List of Hlustrations

PT-6 trainer at Brooks.

50

JN-4D at Brooks .... 50

1929 paratrooper demonstration at Brook: 51
William C. Ocker and the Ocker Box. 51
Brooks flying cadet complex...... 52
Lindbergh and Chennault--cadet training at Brook: 53
AT-6 and B-24 at Brooks. 54

B-17 at Brooks 54
Inspection... 55

B-25 advanced pilot training at Brooks. 55

Squad tents in use at Brooks 57

‘ Air alert drill at Brooks. 58
School of Aviation Medicine. 59
| C-9 Nightengale trainer a 61
Hangar 9 when built in 1918 at Brooks. 63
Hangar 9 today.............. 63
Museum display at Brooks....ccccccsscsscscscsscccsssssssssssesess 63

C-47 mockup used at Brooks for flight nurse and technician training 64

C-9 cteavesessesesenesesseneses 65

Early pressure suit developed at Brooks 65
Edward H. White, Apollo I astronaut 66
Rotational simulator at Brooks... 67
Pilot testing water survival gear developed at Brooks, 68

Forced air breathing vest. sateseeseenneseeeenes 69

Brooks security police team preparing to deploy to support Operation Desert Storm 70

Sidney J. Brooks Memorial Park ....ssssssssssscsssscsssssecsssessesssse 71
F-]00F in Shriever Heritage Park at Brooks 71

View of the Taj Mahal and Chapel on Randolph Air Force Base 72-73
Brigadier General Frank P, Lahm and members of his staff at the Air Corps Training Center. 74

Aerial view of Schertz, Texas, in the late 1920. 75

Early street layout at what later became Randolph Air Force Base. 77
Captain William M. Randolph...ssssscseeeseeeee 77

/ Aerial view of Randolph while under construction, 78-79
Randolph Field dedication. woes 81
Cadets report for training at Randolph. 83
Cadets at tailor shop..... 83

Cadets with their initial equipment... 83
Routine quarters inspection at Randolph 84

Cadet weather classes at Randolp! 85

PT-13 8S

BT-9 86

Link trainer 87
Cadets prepare to leave Randolph for advanced training at Kelly... 88
Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel P. Disosway, Director of Training at Randolph. 89
AT-6 .. sseeneneeeeresesseneseeenseneen wee 90
First twin-engine instructor graduates at Randolp 91

B-29 transition training at Randolph. 91

C119 92

B-47 92
KC-97 simulator ves 93
Building 900, Headquarters, Air Education and Training Comman 93

T-28 94


In the early 1980s, the
Acrospace Medical Drvi-
sion expanded its mission
with the addition of a
series of advanced engi-
neering and development
programs. Prior to this
time, the division devel-
oped technology but did
not control its programs
past their basic rescarch
and exploratory develop-
ment phases.

In addition, the divi-
sion's role as the Air
Force's human-centered
advocate was strength-
ened with the assignment
of the Air Force Human
Resources Laboratory to
Brooks in 1983.

By the carly 1980s,
the Aerospace Medical
Division had the free
world’s largest concentra-
tion of human, life, and
behavioral per=
sonnel. But, there was a
need to develop beyond
expolatory research and
provide the full spectrum
for acquisition of human-
centered technologies.
So, an Acquisition Office
was developed to act as a
bridge between laboratory
technology and weapon
systems production. By
the end of the decade,
acquisition had  mush-
roomed into a 200-plus
organization responsible for advanced development
and procurement of life support systems, chemical
warfare defense systems, and other related systems.

science

To cmphasize the importance of its acquisition
identity in meeting human challenges in weapon
systems development and operational support, the
Aerospace Medical Division changed its name to the

A Brooks technician tests the Combat Edge positive pressure (forced air)
breathing vest designed specifically for pilots of high performance aircraft by
the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Laboratory.

Human Systems Division or HSD in 1987. The same
logic was used to realign the program management for
the Life Support System Program Office the following
year, The System Program Office's realignment
emphasized the importance of human systems advo-
cacy, independent of weapons systems. It also gave
the Human Systems Division at Brooks AFB a new
and significant status



that since Randolph would be used for flying training,
the Air Corps should have a say in its design. General
Cheatham was angry because he felt that it was the
quartermaster’s job to design the airficld. Finally,
Sceretary Davis decided that “the Quartermaster
General would build Randolph the way the Chief of
the Air Corps wants it.” The Air Corps considered
this a historic occasion because it was one of the few
times in its short history that it was permitted a voice
in the determination of its own requirements.

Preconstruction

Once the German farmers had harvested their
crops, no time was lost in preparing the site for the
largest Army construction project since the Panama
Canal. After the owners moved out, 17 farm houses
werc leveled, fences tom down, and the farm land
cleared. On October 11, 1928, work began on clearing
the entire tract. A rather spectacular method was used
to clear some 180 acres of timber. A heavy 500-foot
cable was fastened to the largest tree in the arca, and a
10-ton tractor was hooked to the other end of the
cable. The tractor then traveled in a circle at the end
of the cable, pulling down all trees inside the circle.

After clearing the land, the other major
preconstruction projects were installing underground
communications and power lines, drilling for water,
and laying out the roads. Small cadres of skilled
enlisted men from Brooks and Kelly were assigned to
Randolph to assist in the projects. On August 12,
1929, Captain Earl H. DeFord arrived from Kelly to
become the first commanding officer of Randolph
Field. At that time the field consisted of a “few
construction shacks, a Chinese restaurant, and the flag
pole with a flag.”

The communications and power lines were all
installed in underground conduits to eliminate the use
of above ground wires. Even the railway track which
ran parallcl to the cntrance highway was laid nearly
flush with the ground so as not to present an
obstruction to an aircraft making a forced landing,

Onc of the most important projects begun during
the preliminary construction period was that of
obtaining a reliable water supply. A total of nine wells
were drilled, but only three produced potable water.
These wells were sunk to a depth of 600 to 700 feet to
the Edwards Underground Aquifer, the same strata

80

which feeds the wells in San Antonio. At the height of
World War II training, another well was drilled, to
assure an adequate water supply for the ficld

Since the arrangement of the entire field was to be
established by the road pattern, the foundation for the
elaborate circular network was laid before any
construction began. By the end of 1929, the road
pattern had been established and, when completed,
consisted of 31 miles of roadway at a cost of
$425,000. (For anyone who has been lost on
Randolph’s roads, it must come as some sort of
satisfaction that General Clark, in commenting on the
base he designed, told a Randolph historian, “You
know, my dear, I love this place, but every time I
come out here J get lost.”)

Construction

With these basic installations completed, the
actual above-ground construction at Randolph began
in earnest. The Construction Quartermaster of San
Antonio, Captain Arthur W. Parker, was put in charge
of the construction. On October 18, 1929, the first
contract of $1.28 million was awarded to Murch
Brothers Construction Company of St Louis for the
construction of the Quartermaster and Air Corps
warehouses (presently Buildings 220 and 224) and six
cnlisted barracks.

About this time construction of the first quarters
for officers got under way. Although adhering to a
basic floor plan, variety was achieved by positioning
wings to different sides of the quarters, by
interspersing onc- and two-story structures, by
varying slightly the outer decoration, and by tinting
the stucco exteriors in slightly different shades.
Construction costs for field grade officers quarters
were set at $13,500, while company grade quarters
cost $12,000. Construction of the commanding
general’s quarters, designed by local architect
Herbert F. Greene, did not begin until April/May
1931 and was completed on November 5, 1931, at a
cost of approximately $25,000

These quarters were built of hollow clay tile and
stucco construction with Spanish Mission-influcnced
red tile roofs, The Quartermaster General wanted to
usc reinforced concrete for the quarters, but
Licutenant Clark convinced them to use hollow clay
tile because it was a basic industry in the local area



The 11th Aero Squadron and its DeHavilland DH-4s formed
part of the aerial border patrol in the early 1920s.

pursuit and bombardment squadrons, along with four
obscrvation squadrons, formed a wing of three groups
at Kelly Field. With ground schools closing and
primary training concentrated at Carlstrom Field,
Florida, and March Field, California, the focus of the
flyers at Kelly shifted to maintaining acrial patrols
along the Mexican border. The bandit activity and
border raids common a few years carlier were
becoming more and more infrequent as stability
slowly retumed south of the border, but there were
cnough alarms to justify the patrol and allow the Air
Scrvice to maintain at least a proportion of its strength
on regular flying duty.

The Army stationed some of the border patrol
squadrons in California, but three observation
squadrons and all four bombardment squadrons (all
flying the Amcrican version of the DeHavilland DH-4
two-seater light bombing and observation aircraft)
operated from small fields between El Paso and
Brownsville, with their headquarters at Kelly Ficld. A

fourth observation squadron joined the mix carly in
1920

Most of the flying was routine, but the landscape
was rugged and empty, Advances in aircraft design

and performance had inercased the reliability of

airframes and motors, but the aircraft were still fairly

16

fragile combinations of fabric, wood, and
wire. The romance of flying appealed to the
public, but it was, in reality, a highly
hazardous undertaking. Mechanical failures
caused aircraft to make bumpy, dangerous
landings in desolate areas, sometimes on the
wrong side of the border.

In August 1920, Lieutenants Harold G.
Peterson and Paul H. Davis suffered engine
trouble and had to make a forced landing
after mistakenly following the Concho River
into Mexico instead of paralleling the Rio
Grande. Bandits captured them as they tried
to hike to the border, and their captors sent a
ransom note demanding $15,000 for their
release. Cavalry Captain Leonard Matlack
offered to carry the ransom across, taking
half the money on his first trip in exchange
for Licutenant Peterson. When he returned
bearing the rest of the moncy, Captain
Matlack overheard the bandits planning to
kill them both. Forewamed, Matlack drew
his pistol at the exchange, got the drop on the bandits,
faced them down, and then rode away with Licutenant
Davis and the remaining money

Active aerial patrolling of the border began to
wane in the last few months of 1920. Airmen con-
centrated their attention on experiments involving
radio communication with ground troops, acrial gun-
nery practicc, and formation flying. A few months
later, the Ist Pursuit Group moved from Kelly to
Ellington Field, Texas, and then to Selfridge Field,
Michigan, and many of the men and pilots of the 2d
Bombardment Group (originally designated as the Ist
Day Bombardment Group) transferred to Virginia to
prepare for a serics of bombing experiments under the
command of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell

Consolidation of Training

The armistice of 1918 ended the immediate necd
for large numbers of pilots. Some training continued.
The need for Air Service pilots did not disappear
completely, but the vast majority of training centers
closed. During 1919 the Air Service concentrated both
ground school and primary flight training at March
Ficld, California, and Carlstrom Field, Florida
Congress authorized limited enlistment of flying
cadets.



training ficld. Lahm concluded carly on that the
existing training fields were inadequate. In the first
place, many of the buildings at Brooks and Kelly were
hastily erected during World War I, with a life
expectancy of only five years. There were also no
suitable facilities for ground training, and the living
quarters were inadequate. More compelling, however,
was the growth of San Antonio, which was beginning
to encroach upon flying training operations.

In a report to Major
General Mason Patrick,
Chief of the Army Air
Corps, General Lahm said
that the primary school
was outgrowing Brooks,
and he expressed the need
to concentrate the Army’s
flying school facilities at a
new field. In fate 1926,
Gencral Patrick recom-
mended such action to
Congress and indicated
the vicinity of San
Antonio as the logical
sitc, The government pre-
ferred San Antonio for
several reasons. The
primary and advanced
flying schools, as well as
the Air Corps Training
Center, were there; the
flying weather was idcal
year-round; and San
Antonio was well known
to aviators.

Acquisition of Land

In April 1927, based on assurances from city
officials that land would be made available for the
new field, General Lahm appointed a board of Air
Corps officers to inspect available sites. From a list of
possible sites prepared by the board, Lahm selected a
tract known as Calf Hill, located about nine miles east
of the city on Hedwig Road (south of the present site
of Woodlake Country Club). Since the designated land
consisted of numerous small farms, acquiring options
on the land proved to be a slow and difficult process.
Although the Chamber of Commerce obtained options
on over 3,000 acres, it had been unable to sccure an

75

option on the land of William Rittiman. General
Lahm, considering the Rittiman tract essential for the
new field, decided against Calf Hill and appointed
another board of officers in October 1927 to scarch
for new sites

During the next 3 weeks, another 19 sites were
submitted for Lahm’s consideration. After the list was
narrowed, for one reason or another, only one site

This is an aerial view of Schertz, Texas, as it looked shortly after Randolph
Field opened its flying training program.

remained--a 2,300-acre tract adjacent to the
community of Schertz and the present location of
Randolph AFB. Partially covered by mesquite and
cacti, and partially farmland, the property consisted of
many separate farms. The site was the unanimous
choice of the board, but Lahm delayed announcing the
selection until early December to prevent land
speculation. (This would indicate that one reason for
Lahm not accepting the Calf Hill site was the
speculation that occurred on that land.)

General Lahm’s switch from Calf Hill to the
Schertz site at such a late date put the city under the
gun to obtain options on the land without further



reflected what was already a de facto situation by that
date. Quietly, without fanfare, an era in the history of
American military aviation ended. The time when
young men who wanted wings would find their goal in
the skies over Kelly Field was over.

World War Il

Kelly’s World War II mission turned the base into
a huge industrial complex. A new organization, the
San Antonio Air Service Command, managed the
increased supply and maintenance workloads, Kelly
employces overhauled, repaircd, and modified aircraft
(including B-17s, B-25s, B-29s, P-5S1s, and C-47s),
engines and related equipment. Rapid production lines
established a rate of overhaul on accessories,
bombsights, guns, and
electrical equipment that
set records for both
military and commercial
Tepair agencies.

Kelly’s work force
grew tremendously during
the war as well. In 1939
old Duncan Field had less
than a thousand civilian
employees and only a few
military personnel. By the
middie of 1945, over
19,000 civilians and
4,000 military worked at
Kelly.

Nearly 40 percent of
the civilians were women.
“Kelly Katics” were San
Antonio’s counterparts to
“Rosie the Riveter,’ women cvcrywhere who did
nontraditional work, contributing greatly to the
successful war effort. They worked in nearly every
shop at the ficld, including engine overhaul and
aircraft fuel tank repair.

Storage space on Kelly was at a premium. The
field annexed Normoyle Ordnance Depot, soon called
East Kelly, in 1945 to house the massive amounts of
incoming excess equipment. In addition, Kelly
established an outprocessing center for the thousands
of soldiers who received their discharges at the end of
the war.

When the Allies declared victory in August 1945,
America began to demobilize as rapidly as it had in
1918. Over 3,000 Kelly civilians resigned or retired
within weeks of V-J Day. Most of the Kelly Katics
went home. Nevertheless, more and more AT-6, P-51,
and B-29 aircraft landed at the ficld as disposal and
aircraft storage took up more and morc of Kelly’s
time and space. Hundreds of aircraft were parked in
the grassy fields between the runways

Maintenance workers stopped work on very heavy
bombers and began supporting the occupation forces
in Europe and Japan by fixing air transportation,
communications, and weather systems. In 1946 San
Antonio Air Technical Services Command became the
San Antonio Air Materiel Arca (SAAMA)

After the war, P-5Is lined the area between the runways awaiting disposal.

In July 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed
the National Sccurity Act which, among other things,
created an independent United States Air Force. Over
the next few years, the youngest of the armed services
separated itsclf from the Army way of doing things. In
January 1948, Kelly Field became Kelly Air Force
Base.

The Cold War
The end of World War I! did not mean the end of

American military assistance and responsibility. By
1947 American leaders were aware of the potential


same time, Air Training Command disestablished the
Indoctrination Division. The wing was now the host
unit on Lackland. In January 1953, Air Training
Command redesignated the 3700th as a military
training wing, and six years later, on January 1, 1959,
the wing again changed its name, becoming the
Lackland Military Training Center

"The Gateway to the Air Force" accurately
described Lackland after 1946. Much of the time, it
had sole responsibility for the military indoctrination
of basic trainces. Only when manpower requirements
mereased during the Berlin Airlift crisis and during
the Korean and Vietnam Wars did the Air Force find
it necessary to conduct basic military training
elsewhere. Sheppard Air Force Basc, Texas, provided
Tecruit training from August 26, 1948, until April 1,
1949. Sheppard, Parks Air Force Base in California,
and Sampson Air Force Base in New York trained
recruits during the Korean War. Crowded conditions
and a meningitis outbreak causcd Lackland to shift
some basic trainees to Amarillo Air Force Base,
Texas, between February 17, 1966, and December I,
1968. With those exceptions, after February 1946 all
enlisted airmen began their Air Force carcers at
Lackland.

Over the same period,
Lackland had a large role in
training future officers
Officer Candidate School pro-
duced reserve officers from the
enlisted corps until July 1962:
the Officer Training School
(OTS) activated on July 1,
1959, to commission college
graduates with no prior
service, as well as airmen who
had camed undergraduate
degrees. Throughout most of
its history, Lackland provided
military orientation for
officers directly commissioned
on enlistment, especially
clergy and lawyers recruited
for the chaplaincy and the
Judge advocate corps. Only
Air Force Academy cadets,
Air Force Reserve Officer
Training Corps cadets, and a
very small number of direct

Officer Training
second lieutenants in the United States Air Force.

commissionces won gold bars without a stint at
Lackland. However, that changed in 1993 when the
command moved the Officer Training School, as well
as chaplain and legal training, to Maxwell AFB,
Alabama

The Korean and Victnam Wars severely tested
Lackland's capacity to train the airmen being
recruited. When Air Force officials lifted recruitment
cetlings on December 21, 1950, Lackland saw a
dramatic rise in the number of enlistees arriving daily
That number peaked at 6,007 recruits on January 12,
1951, before the Air Staff suspended enlistments. By
then, the trainee population topped 55,000 on a base
with a maximum capacity for 25,000 trainces
Lackland officials suspended all training, while
imstructors and support personnel worked overtime
Just to provide for the essential needs of the recruits,
Lackland had become a tent city, with row upon row
of squad tents, mess tents, and latrines on virtually
every open space, including the main parade ground.

The training surge for the Victnam War was less
chaotic but still challenging. Between mid-1965 and

School graduates celebrate their commissioning as

106


Using state-of-the-art
stercolithography equipment, Kelly
workers used lasers to produce
models of parts, which helped reduce
both the manufacturing time and
costs of developing item prototypes

its business as the center had to compete with the
other services and private companies for workloads.
Another change caused by the DMRDs was the
transfer of supply functions from the air logistics
centers to the Defense Logistics Agency, which took
control of Kelly’s warehouse space, bringing an end
to what had been a fundamental part of Kelly opera-
tions since World War I.

Continued efforts to cut defense spending by
relocating missions and closing bases put Kelly and
the San Antonio Air Logistics Center at risk in May
1993 wheu the Base Realignment and Closure
Commission (BRAC) added Kelly and three other air
logistics centers to the list of places it considered
closing. The threat to the base, and thus to the
economic health of San Antonio, galvanized the city
and the public. Commissioners were impressed
enough by both the outpouring of public support

40

The air logistics center’s physical
sciences labs played an important part
in developing new technological
processes and testing to ensure
contractor-manufactured items met
performance specifications

and the data which showed the kind of job Kelly
workers were doing to remove the center (along with
the other air logistics centers) from the closure list
With the publicity generated by the closure threats,
few, if any, residents of San Antonio and surrounding
communities were left unaware of the enormous
impact Kelly had on the local area. More than just the
possible loss of jobs and incomes, the threat to Kelly
was a threat to an institution to which three genera-
tions of local people had devoted their professional
lives.

By 1995, however, it was clear that the victory
two years earlier was only the first one needed if
Kelly and its air logistics center were to stay in busi-
ness. Despite Department of Defense recommenda-
tions to keep ail five air logistics centers open, the
1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission
decided to add them to the list of possible closures.


Lyndon Johnson was at Randolph on
February 16, 1958, to grect Airman
Farrell when he emerged from the
chamber

Not long after, the National
Acronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) asked Brooks personnel to pre-
pare a small life-support capsule for a
Rhesus monkey (named Sam after the
School of Aviation Medicine). After being
trained at Brooks to do simple tasks, in
1959 Sam was lofted into a rescarch
rocket, ejected in flight, and later
recovered. The purpose of the flight was to
The McDonnell Douglas C-9 was the first jet aircraft | test the escape system developed by
specifically configured for aeromedical evacuation missions. [t_ _ NASA for the Mercury astronauts. The
entered service in August 1968. success of this test and a following primate

Russian teenagers to Brooke Army
Medical Center in San Antonio serves as a
shining example of aeromedical cvacua-
tion’s commitment to worldwide transport
of the sick and injured in times of peace,
natural disaster, or war.

The Space Years

On November 12, 1948, Brooks
hosted the first panel mecting to discuss
medical problems of space flight. A
year later the School of Aerospace
Medicine created a Department of Space
Medicine

Many of the subjects used in early
pressure chamber isolation and weight-
lessness studies were Air Force basic
trainces who volunteered. One of the first
was Airman Donald R. Farrell, a finance
specialist stationed at Randolph AFB. In
1958 he volunteered to test the space cabin

: simulator that the School of Aviation
i Medicine had received in 1954. Although
his seven-day stay in the tiny cabin scems
tame today, at the time there were many
unanswered questions regarding the Scientists at Brooks developed this early pressure suit for use
physical and psychological effects of long- in space. It is just one of many different projects that Brooks’
term isolation. The significance of the feat personnel have worked on as a part of the United States’
was highlighted by the fact that Senator space program.

65


By the mid-1950s, jet aircraft had
become extremely important to the Air
Force. The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the
first jet aircraft repaired in Kelly’s Texas-
sized maintenance hangar built in 1957.
The B-S8 Hustler was another important
addition to the Air Force’s inventory. As
America’s first supersonic bomber, it
could fly higher and faster than any other
bomber in the world. In 1958 the San
Antonio Air Matericl Area opened the
B-58 Logistics Support Management
Office, forerunner of a major organiza-
tional realignment where worldwide
weapon system management functions
were separated organizationally from
intemal depot operations. In the carly
1960s, the B-52 was the air materiel area’s
major depot-level maintenance workload.
This cra in Kelly’s history ended in the spring of 1993
when the Air Force shifted Kelly’s B-52 workload to
Oklahoma.

In addition to jet aircraft, workers at the San
Antonio Air Matericl Area also had management and
maintenance responsibility for a wide varicty of jet
engines, beginning with turbo-props like the T34,
154, and TS6. The first T56 engine, power plant of
the venerable C-130 Hercules, arrived at Kelly in
November 1955. Today, Kelly personnel are still
Tepairing the time-honored engine.

Vietnam

Kelly’s workload remained relatively stable until
the mid-1960s when American efforts to prevent the
fall of the South Vietnamese government lcd to direct
US involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1964 all air
matcricl areas began supporting operations in the
Pacific on a 24-hour-a-day basis. During the build-up
of US forces in Vietnam, Air Force Logistics Com-
mand sent teams of supply personnel to the Pacific
Kelly had no lack of volunteers; about 89 workers
traveled throughout the Wester Pacific on temporary
duty, establishing supply centers. Kelly also sent
maintenance teams to help with the war effort. Jet
engine mechanics assisted in the creation of an engine
repair facility at Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam;
other Kelly workers served on special F-5 modifi-
cation teams. Those who remained in San Antonio

36

The B-52 was a stable workload for Kelly mechanics for over
20 years.

also strove to meet the demand for materiel and air-
craft maintenance to support our troops in the Pacific

Weapon systems used in Southeast Asia managed
by the San Antonio Air Materiel Arca included F-102,
F-106, A-37, 0-2, and F-5 aircraft, while major
maintenance workloads centercd around aircraft
engines, airfield lighting equipment, life support
system items, and acrospace ground cquipment.
Specific maintenance workloads included B-52 air-
craft modifications; T34, T56, and J79 engine
overhaul; and recoverable-aerospace item repair.

In the early 1970s, Kelly workers were deeply
involved in President Richard M. Nixon’s Victnami-
zation Program. Personnel voluntecred to go to
Vietnam to teach materiel management techniques to
the South Vietnamese. Others worked at a frantic pace
to transfer A-37s, T-38s, and F-5s, along with 18.3
million pounds of cargo, to the South Vietnamese Air
Force in Project Enhance Plus

One of the happier programs Kelly people
supported was Operation Homecoming, the return of
prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. Lackland Air
Force Base and Fort Sam Houston were designated as
reception areas in San Antonio because cach had
hospital facilities to handle the necds of these men.
Kelly was the reception point for 11 flights which
carried 20 Air Force and 12 Army men. Kelly Air
Force Base took great pride in welcoming home these
men who had spent years in captivity.


Air evacuation became another significant con-
tnbution of the Aerospace Medical Division. Its
researchers developed advanced equipment to treat
patients aboard aircraft, including therapeutic oxygen
systems that provided humidity for paticnts with
respiratory difficulties. Other inventions included dig-
ital clectronic thermometers and electronic stetho-
scopes that could be heard over the noise of aircraft
engines. The School of Aerospace Medicine aided in
the development of modular air transportable
hospitals. School personnel also worked with members
of the Army and Navy to develop joint-service
prisoner of war medical and
procedures.

evaluation forms

A pilot tests water survival gear developed at Brooks.

Force Modernization

At the same time the United States began
disengaging itsclf from Victnam, Americans were
contending with the Arab oil cmbargo, inflation,
military downsizing, and congressional budget cuts
Military money could only go to projects that

68

addressed operational problems and that had clearly
dcfined customers. The Aerospace Medical Division
found its research narrowed from thcorctical to
applied. Yet, the division grew with the addition of the
USAF Occupational and Environmental Health
Laboratory in 1976.

Over the years, the laboratory developed the capa-
bility to analyze chemicals in virtually any substance
It gave advice conceming the actions and reactions of
chemicals and responded to the site of any accidents
with the potential for radiation leakage. The
Acrospace Medical Division also helped the Air Force
B-1 program by developing its oxygen: ‘generating
system. Missile systems
were also undergoing
modernization, and the
division continued __ its
support for the  inter-
continental ballistic mis-
sile through its rescarch
into the toxicity of missile
fucls and ways of detect-

ing leaks before they
could injure launch site
personnel

Technology Transition

In addition, the Acro-
space Medical Division
was a single-point mana-
ger for all human-centered
activities for aircrew
effectiveness. Over the
years, it enlarged and
incorporated those labora-
torics whose mission was
also human centered
Thus, Brooks cmbraced
the missions of research,
teaching, health care,
training selection, and
medical support for crew
effectiveness activitics. In essence, this technical
organization assumcd the unique position of sur-
veillance over the field of interest that the original
Mcdical Rescarch Laboratory of the Army Signal
Corps established and maintained during World War I
and the much more complex scientific community
which had developed since World War II



In late 1950 and early
1951, thousands of
young recruits poured
into Lackland on a
daily basis (right). The
only way the base
could house them was
by setting up a tent
city (above).

mid-1966, the military training center regularly
handled recruit populations of 20,000 and more, while
manned and equipped for 17,770 basic trainees. Even
though the center split training shifts, reduced the
course length from 30 to 24 days, and increased flight
size, some recruits still had to live in tents.

Lackland’s technical training mission grew out of
the Korean War. During the war, the 3700th
Instructor Squadron had periodically taught a one-

107

week training course for recruiters. This unit not only
trained instructors and recruiters but also taught
several technical subjects, including carcer counseling
and band.

Lackland gained its first permanent technical
training responsibility in May 1954, when the Officer
Candidate School implemented the USAF Recruiting
Course. The base received its first technical training
unit on November 20, 1956, when the 3275th



During the war, Bill would not Iet male civilians into
the palace because of all the fights between military
and civilian customers. So the place was, for a time,
fenced as though it were a part of Brooks Field

Ground was broken for the new airfield on
December 8, 1917. It remained Kelly Field #5, despite
Colonel Amold's pronoucement, until February 4,
1918, when it was formally named Brooks Field. The
architect selected by the War Department was Albert
Kahn, with offices in Detroit, Michigan, and the firm
chosen to build the new installation was Harmon &
Company of St Louis, Missouri. Work began with the
extension of railroad tracks and the running of
telephone lines to the new field. Kahn's plans depicted
a curved hangar line in the shape of a crescent

Major Henry C. Pratt was the first commander of
Brooks Field. Along with a staff of 10, his first
mission was to produce instructor pilots.

46

fronting an open field to the south with the remaining,
buildings arranged behind the line to the north, In
those days, as today, an airfield was like a small, sclf-
contained village. Besides 16 hangars, Brooks Field
had a hospital, a school, a post exchange, a YMCA,
an administration building, a fire station, a garage, a
machine shop, a blacksmith shop, a hose house, a
pump house, and a water tower. Additionally, it had
barracks, dining halls, officers' quarters, an officers'
mess, supply and repair facilitics, a quartermaster
building, a motor test facility, and buildings for the
storage of gas and oil

Remarkably, construction was completed in a
matter of months. On January 29, 1918, the Army's
chief signal officer appointed Major Henry Coner
Pratt commandant of Brooks Field. Pratt had served
most recently as commanding officer at Call Field
neat Wichita Falls, Texas. His imminent arrival was
announced on February 7, along with the news that
Brooks was nearly complete and had already been
accepted from the contractors. No aviators had yet
arrived; the population of Brooks Field still consisted
mainly of two construction squadrons.

Major Pratt arrived at Brooks on February 16,
1918, and things began to round into shape in the
weeks that followed. Captain Loren Pickering, who
had served previously as assistant adjutant at Kelly
Ficld, came over to organize the young cadets who
would soon be arriving for advanced flying training
In March the first flyers arrived in the form of the
29th Acro Services Squadron, commanded by Captain
Guy V. Head, and on the 28th of March, Major
Leo A. Walton, officer in charge of flying, made the
first flight from Brooks Field

Gosport Training System

Brooks Field, in addition to the training of cadets,
took on another mission--preparing Army flying
officers to serve as instructor pilots, using a
breakthrough method of instruction developed by the
British. The Gosport method was developed by a
Royal Air Force pilot, Captain R Smith-Barry, at the
Gosport flying school in Hampshire, England
Concerned by the high mortality rate among, fliers,
Captain Smith-Barry, in late 1917, began to teach his
students using airplanes fitted with dual controls and
speaking tubes developed by a fellow pilot, a Major


training in either pursuit,
bombardment, attack, or
observation aircraft. That
was how the program was
structured until the drum-
beat of war began to
resonate around the world
in the late 1930s.

Expansion

The first sign of
change camc in August
1937 when Brigadier
General Henry H. Amold,
then Acting Chief of the
Air Corps, announced an
expansion of the size of
classes at the Air Corps
Training Center at
Randolph Field to 344
students a class. At the
time, there were but two
cadet barracks that could
house 212 cadets. To
handle primary classes of
344 — students, school
officials decided they could, on a temporary basis, put
four to a room. To cope with the larger classes in the
long run, authorities approved the construction of two
additional permanent barracks in the cadet arca. They
were completed in 1939, in time for an expansion of
major proportions.

Contract Primary Schools

Early in 1939, the War Department announced it
intended to beef up the Air Corps by over 4,500 pilots
in the next two years, more than double the 2,200
pilots then on active duty. To pull that off, the Air
Corps decided to conduct primary training at civilian
contract schools and have Randolph concentrate
strictly on basic flying training. A board of officers
appointed by General Amold recommended nine
civilian flying schools to initiate the new program. The
civilian schools began training primary students in
July 1939. In line with that plan, the last class of
primary students graduated on August 25, 1939, and
Randolph moved full tilt into basic training a month
later. New classes were slated to enter every six
weeks. With that, the school at Randolph became the

88

Cadets prepare to leave their BT-9s behind and move on to Kelly Field for
advanced training.

Air Corps Basic Flying School. In the months leading
up to the inauguration of primary training at contract
schools, the staff at Randolph was extraordinarily
busy. To standardize the training provided by the
contract primary schools, Randolph instructor pilots
set up an intensive two-week course for their civilian
counterparts. Since the students were already
experienced flyers, the purpose of the course was not
to teach anyone to fly but to acquaint them with the
methods of instruction developed at Randolph and
with the peculiarities of Air Corps training equipment.
At the end of the course, each student ferried a
primary training airplane back to his field. Looking
back, this marked the beginning of a long-standing
association between Randolph and pilot instructor
training.

In addition to furnishing the planes, Randolph
Field also furnished a cadre of several officers and
scrgcants at each location to supervise the civilian
primary schools and oversee the military training
program. To accelerate the production of pilots, the
Air Corps cut the training time in each phase from 16
to 12 weeks. By bringing in a new class every six



i

pilings and mounds of stcel girders when, on April 5,
1917, four JN-4 Jennies slid down out of the south
Texas sky to land on the dusty, former cotton ficld.
Their timing was impeccable; the following day the
United States entered World War I. Pilots of the four
aircraft were Captains Gcorge Remburg and Bert
Atkinson, recent arrivals from the Ist Aero Squadron;
Captain Carl Spaatz, whose name was consistently
rendered as “Spotts” by the local press; and Eddic
Stinson, a civilian flying instructor who lived in San
Antonio. According to local legend, since none of the
buildings were complete, the flyers slept that night
underneath the wings of their planes. The more
prosaic truth is that the planes were housed in tent
hangars, familiar to the pilots along the border, while
the men were also quartered in tents

To Build an Air Service

Within wecks, 4,400 recruits flooded the new
field. Wooden mess halls and latrines sprang up, but
most of the men lived in ordered rows of pyramid-
shaped tents. The
3d Aero Squadron
was joined by a 4th
and Sth, along with
a Provisional Acro
Squadron which
acted as a reception
agency for the
crowd of new men
arriving daily. In
June 1917, Colone!
Charles E. Tayman
arrived to take
control and dis-
covered that he had
only 25 officers to
supervise approxi-
mately 5,700 men.

One of Colonel
Tayman’s first
steps was to name
his new command.
At his suggestion, on June 11, Brigadier Genoral
James Parker, Commander of the Southern Depart-
ment, issucd an order designating the ficld as Camp
Kelly in memory of Licutenant George E.M. Kelly,
the first American military aviator to dic in the crash
of a military airplane. Six weeks later, another order

A group of Jennies prepare to lift off the grass. In the shelter
are cadets awaiting their turn at the controls.

renamed the installation Kelty Field. At the same time,
the Army issued instructions for the formation of a
further 27 acro squadrons and announced plans to
establish a major supply depot on the field, These
proposals confirmed what was already obvious: the
original site chosen by Foulois was simply too small.
Enlisting the aid of the local Chamber of Commerce,
Colonel Tayman and his staff promptly obtained lease
agreements for another 1,800 acres of land
immediately to the north northwest of the original site.
That original site was now known as Kelly Field
Number | and the new area as Kelly Ficld Number 2
With speed crucial, the government agreed to the
terms in mid-July, and workers began constructing
wooden hangars, mess halls, barracks, and other
buildings.

The owner of one 200-acre tract, Emmett B.
Cocke of San Antonio, was amazed at the specd at
which the contractors went to work. Out of town for
five days, Cocke retumed to find his tenants moved
off the land, a large portion of the current cotton crop
already chopped
down, a small rail-
road spur laid from
the main line to the
artesian well, a
barn cut in half,
and one tenant cot-
tage converted into
a construction crew
headquarters and
drafting room.

Standard plans
called for a ficld to
have 12 hangars,
along with the
necessary other
structures. With
24 hangars, Kelly
Ficld Number 2
was twice as large,
and even then space
was tight. Planners
in the Aviation Section decided to establish several
other ficlds in the immediate arca, numbering rather
than naming them. Plans called for an eventual total of
some six Kelly Ficlds, most of which were simple
auxiliary fields with few, if any, permanent buildings
However, Kelly Number 5 took on a life of its own.



The Early Days, 1910-1916

Military aviation came to the Alamo City for the
first time in February 1910 when Lieutenant
Benjamin D. Foulois arrived at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas, with a party of enlisted men and the Army’s
only airplane. Foulois was there partly because the
Army did not know
where else to send him
or its lone airplane
Although just over six
years had passed since
the Wright brothers’
first powered flight of
December 1903, the
Amy was not a com-
plete convert to the idea
that flying had military
utility. Army officials at
first dismissed _ offers
from the Wrights
If President Theodore
Roosevelt had not
mtervened and ordered
Secretary of War
William H. Taft to
Investigate the inven-
tion, the Wrights might
have sold the airplane
to a European power.
Reluctantly, the War
Department did call for
bids for an aircraft that
could carry two people
at an average speed of
40 miles per hour over a distance of 125 miles. Three
potential builders responded, but only the Wrights had
the technical skill to actually deliver a machine. Army
officials balked at the estimated cost of $25,000 but
finally found the money, and in August 1908, flight
tests began at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Along with demonstrating that their plane met the
Army’s specifications, the Wrights also agreed to
train a handful of officers to fly it. Spectators crowded
the fields to gawk and applaud, but tragedy struck on
September 17, 1908, when the plane crashed, severely
injuring Orville Wright and killing his passenger,
Lieutenant Thomas Sclfridge. The brothers did not
return to Fort Myer until June 1909. On July 27

Orville Wright, now recovered from his injuries, took
Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm as a passenger on the first
official test flight. Three days later, with Licutcnant
Foulois as a passenger, Orville Wright flew five miles
to Alexandria, Virginia, at an average speed of 42.5

The experiences of Captain Foulois and members of the Ist Aero Squadron
with the Punitive Expedition in Mexico in 1916 persuaded officials in the
Aviation Section to open two new training fields in the San Antonio area.

miles per hour. On August 2 the Army accepted the
planc--Acroplanc Number |

Wilbur Wright completed the contract during the
fall of 1909 by teaching Licutenants Frank Lahm and
Frederic C. Humphreys to fly. Foulois flew at times as
a passenger, but he had not yet solocd when Lahm and
Humphreys crashed the plane in November. While
workmen conducted repairs, the Army debated what
to do with it. Finally, with winter weather severely
curtailing any flying around Washington, Foulois got
instructions to take the plane and a group of eight
enlisted men to San Antonio, Texas, but first they put
the plane on display at the annual Chicago Electrical
Trade Exhibition



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Origins of Randolph

Conception

Following World War I, the Anny Air Service,
led by such officers as Billy Mitchell, Benjamin
Foulois, and “Hap” Amold, struggled to establish an
independent mission for the air arm that would
warrant its separation from the Army. The audacious
and outspoken Mitchell was at the center of the
struggle. Mitchell’s impatience and impetuous
indiscretions, however, ultimately led to his court-
martial and resignation in 1926.

Although the Mitchell court-martial was a stormy
period for the Air Service, it had important
consequences for San Antonio. The agitation of the
Mitchell era prompted President Calvin Coolidge to
appoint a board, headed by Dwight W. Morrow, to
study the “best means of developing and applying
aircraft in national defense.” Although the
Morrow Board’s recommendations did not

1926. (Duncan Ficld was absorbed by Kelly in the
early days of World War II.) General Lahm’s
instructions were to coordinate and supervise flying
training and, at the same time, incorporate the
research and training functions of the School of
Aviation Medicine, which was being transferred to
Brooks Field from Hazclhurst Field, New York.
Before leaving Washington, Lahm summarized his
objectives regarding flying training as “bringing the
primary and advanced schools closer together so as to
make the transition easier.”

Meanwhile, the War Department had been
considering various proposals for a new training field
that would best serve the needs of the expanding Air
Corps. These proposals ranged from using another,
existing field to supplementing the training at Brooks
and Kelly to creating a brand new central flying

go nearly as far as the Air Service wanted,
they did result in the Air Corps Act of
1926 which changed the name of the Amy
Air Service to the Army Air Corps,
“thereby strengthening the conception of
national aviation as an offensive, striking
arm rather than an auxiliary service.”
More important was the authorization to
Carry out a five-year expansion program
for the seriously under-manned Air Corps.
In 1926 the Army Air Corps had only 919
officers, 8,725 enlisted men, and less than
1,000 aircraft.

Also in 1926, the Air Corps decided to
make a change in its training arrangement.
Instead of Kelly and Brooks operating as
separate commands, officials decided to
establish a single command responsible for
all flying training--the Air Corps Training
Center. Brigadier General Frank P. Lahm =~ =
was assigned as the first commander. =
Since all primary flying training was given
at Brooks Field at this time and all

~~ HEADQUARTERS ~-
THE AIR GORPS TRAINING CENTER

advanced training at Kelly Field, Lahm
established his headquarters at Duncan
Field, adjacent to Kelly, on September 1,

Shown above are Brigadier General Frank P. Lahm (center

front), Commander, Air Corps Training Center, and members
of his staff,

74


Cadets report for training (top), visit the tailor shop for
alterations (center), and depart supply carrying their
initial equipment.

83




advanced flying school and Kelly Field of both aviation
cadet classification and preflight training.

The Adjutant General took action on June 26,
1942, when he directed that the Hill be separated from
Kelly Field and that it be operated as an independent
military installation designated as the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center. By then, the preflight school
and the station hospital had moved into just completed
facilities on the Hill cast of Military Road. The
classification center could not begin its move until
new facilities west of the road were ready for
occupancy in September.

The Gulf Coast Army Air Forces Training Center,
an intermediate higher headquarters, formally trans-
ferred the preflight school, the classification center, a
station hospital, an Air Force band, and several other
units to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center on
July 4, 1942. On the same day, Coloncl Michael F.
Davis set up and took command of the aviation cadet
center headquarters. The classification and preflight
establishments remained assigned to the Gulf Coast
Amny Air Forces Training Center, headquartered at
Randolph Ficld, while thcir commanders reported to
Colonel Davis

The physical plant of the San Antonio Aviation
Cadet Center did not take final shape until the summer
of 1943, when construction of facilitics finally caught
up with the need. By then, the station hospital had
joined the classification center and preflight school as
a major mission organization. It had taken on
significant medical training courses, in addition to its
primary function of servicing the installation.

Mission

With general mobilization following Pearl Harbor,
the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center grew rapidly.
Cadets of Class 42-F had begun training in November
1941 for a nation at peace; they graduated in late
December facing warfare. Instructors for that first
class had to devise the four-weck curriculum as they
taught it. The course taught military indoctrination
(36 hours), administrative indoctrination (23), aca-
demics (42), and physical conditioning (32). The
course gradually lengthened to 10 weeks as the war
progressed. The urgency for pilots decreased, and the
lessons Ieamed from combat found their way into the

curriculum. Approximately 90,000 candidates for
flying training passed through the preflight school
before the need diminished, and the War Department
ordered the school closed on April 30, 1944

The San Antonio Aviation Cadct Center
performed a varicty of other training missions late in
the war; among them were officer candidate training
for enlisted men, indoctrination for officers directly
commissioned, and preparation for officers to pursuc
advanced college courses. Within days after
announcing, on March 23, 1944, plans to disband the
preflight school, the War Department reversed itself
and added to the school’s mission: preparing Turkish
Air Force licutenants for undergraduate pilot training.
The school finally discontinued on June 30, 1945

With the end of preflight training, the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center's name was no longer appro-
priate. On July 1, 1945, the installation was redesig-
nated as the San Antonio District, Army Atr Forces
Personnel Distribution Command, signaling a new
mission; receiving vetcrans from the combat theaters
and cither reassigning or separating them. The base's
1,500-bed regional hospital played a large role,
tending to the rchabilitation and physical evaluation
necds of those arriving from wartime assignments.
With that task largely accomplished in early 1946, the
base became subject to the general demobilization

Instead of closing operations on the Hill, as
happened to most wartime training camps, the War
Department redesignated it as the Army Air Forces
Military Training Ccnter, on February 1, 1946, and
gave it the basic military training mission that had
been at Harlingen Field, Texas. As other boot camps
closed, the Army Air Forces intended to consolidate
all enlisted basic training on the Hill. Reinforcing the
military training center's indoctrination mission, the
Officer Candidate School also transferred here from
Maxwell Ficld, Alabama.

On November |, 1946, Air Training Command
redesignated the military training center as the
Indoctrination Division. Then on August 26, 1948,
Air Training Command added the newly organized
3700th Basic Training Wing to the Indoctrination
Division. However, Air Training Command discon-
tinued the wing less than a year later on April 22,
1949. A new wing, the 3700th Air Force Jndoc-
trination Wing, organized on October 28, 1949. At the





same time, Air Training Command disestablished the
Indoctrination Division. The wing was now the host
unit on Lackland. In January 1953, Air Training
Command redesignated the 3700th as a military
training wing, and six years later, on January 1, 1959,
the wing again changed its name, becoming the
Lackland Military Training Center

"The Gateway to the Air Force" accurately
described Lackland after 1946. Much of the time, it
had sole responsibility for the military indoctrination
of basic trainces. Only when manpower requirements
mereased during the Berlin Airlift crisis and during
the Korean and Vietnam Wars did the Air Force find
it necessary to conduct basic military training
elsewhere. Sheppard Air Force Basc, Texas, provided
Tecruit training from August 26, 1948, until April 1,
1949. Sheppard, Parks Air Force Base in California,
and Sampson Air Force Base in New York trained
recruits during the Korean War. Crowded conditions
and a meningitis outbreak causcd Lackland to shift
some basic trainees to Amarillo Air Force Base,
Texas, between February 17, 1966, and December I,
1968. With those exceptions, after February 1946 all
enlisted airmen began their Air Force carcers at
Lackland.

Over the same period,
Lackland had a large role in
training future officers
Officer Candidate School pro-
duced reserve officers from the
enlisted corps until July 1962:
the Officer Training School
(OTS) activated on July 1,
1959, to commission college
graduates with no prior
service, as well as airmen who
had camed undergraduate
degrees. Throughout most of
its history, Lackland provided
military orientation for
officers directly commissioned
on enlistment, especially
clergy and lawyers recruited
for the chaplaincy and the
Judge advocate corps. Only
Air Force Academy cadets,
Air Force Reserve Officer
Training Corps cadets, and a
very small number of direct

Officer Training
second lieutenants in the United States Air Force.

commissionces won gold bars without a stint at
Lackland. However, that changed in 1993 when the
command moved the Officer Training School, as well
as chaplain and legal training, to Maxwell AFB,
Alabama

The Korean and Victnam Wars severely tested
Lackland's capacity to train the airmen being
recruited. When Air Force officials lifted recruitment
cetlings on December 21, 1950, Lackland saw a
dramatic rise in the number of enlistees arriving daily
That number peaked at 6,007 recruits on January 12,
1951, before the Air Staff suspended enlistments. By
then, the trainee population topped 55,000 on a base
with a maximum capacity for 25,000 trainces
Lackland officials suspended all training, while
imstructors and support personnel worked overtime
Just to provide for the essential needs of the recruits,
Lackland had become a tent city, with row upon row
of squad tents, mess tents, and latrines on virtually
every open space, including the main parade ground.

The training surge for the Victnam War was less
chaotic but still challenging. Between mid-1965 and

School graduates celebrate their commissioning as

106


Overhaul, Maintenance and Supply

When Kelly Number 1 became crowded with the
tents, barracks, mess halls, and classrooms associated
with training flying cadets, officials began shifting
flying north to the adjoining Kelly Number 2. More
and more, Kelly Number 1 was home to support
activities, including supply and maintenance. A San
Antonio Aviation Supply Depot had existed since
1914 when it was established at Fort Sam Houston.
With flying operations on the increase at Kelly, Air
Service officials decided to form an aviation general
supply depot at San Antonio. Construction began on a
large warchouse at Kelly Number 1 in October 1917.
In June 1918 the depot completed its move from
downtown San Antonio to the new warchouse. The
Kelly depot was an immense concrete and steel
structure. Almost 900 feet
long and 300 fect wide,
the building was divided
by a pair of tracks leading
directly from the main rail
lines south of the field and
was internally subdivided
into 11 separate ware-
houses. Between 200 and
300 railcars arrived with
new material and left with
issue items cach month
Post-war demobilization
slowed the pace of depot
operations considerably,
but it remained open,
partly because so many
flying umits were con-
centrated on the field from
1920 to 1921

During the two
decades between 1922 and
1942, while flight training at Kelly Field dominated
the public image of the Air Corps, the less glamorous
but equally essential tasks of overhaul, maintenance,
and supply took place in shops and warehouses to the
immediate south. When the Air Service consolidated
its training in the early 1920s, it took similar steps
with regard to maintenance and supply. In 1921 the
Air Service repair depot at Love Field near Dallas
moved to Kelly Ficld Number 1. There it joined the
existing supply depot in becoming the San Antonio

31

Air Intermediate Depot. At the time, there were only
three such depots in the country, and the San Antonio
facility had responsibility for the largest geographical
arca of the three.

{n 1925, recognizing the difficultics inherent in
having two divergent functions at a single field, each
responding, to a different chain of command, the Air
Service separated Kelly Field Number | from the rest
of the field and named it Duncan Field. During the
remainder of that decade, and throughout the 1930s,
between 500 and 900 civilian employees repaired and
overhauled aircraft, engines, and other components
and handled the supply function for approximately the
middle third of the United States. The rapid expansion

The large supply warehouse constructed in 1918 was a Kelly landmark until
the early 1980s.

of the Air Corps during the late 1930s increased the
workload at all depots, including the one at San
Antonio. In October 1941, a new organization titled
Air Service Command took control of all supply and
maintenance operations aside from those basic tasks
handled by personne! at the flying fields

American entry into World War If brought an
even larger surge in maintenance and overhaul work-
loads at the depots. The number of workers at the San


A student pilot approaches his assigned AT-6 on the ramp at
Randolph. Note the unique nose art which included a picture of the
“Taj”

makeup that Air Force leaders also observed. Years
later with four stars on his shoulders, General
Disosway served as Commander, Air
Command.)

Tactical

Indeed, the experiment did seem to be a success.
Of the 400° students who started the program, 235
could call themselves graduates. That was a higher
number than normally made it through the primary
and basic stages together. The cadets mainly flew the
Vultee BT-13 and North American BT-14, both
relatively new, low wing monoplanes with enclosed
cockpits and workhorses in the basic stage at that
time. They also got a few flying hours in the North
American AT-6, an advanced trainer, Colonel
Disosway observed the performance of Class 42-X
and concluded that it was feasible to begin flying
training with airplancs more advanced than those used
in primary training. His obscrvations Ied him to
recommend a different way of doing things.

Disosway suggested two parallel tracks for
training aviation cadets (changed from flying cadets
on July 3, 1941, to give the cadets the same status as

90

their counterparts in the Navy and
Marines). His proposal called for
aviation cadets in preflight school
to be divided into two groups,
fighter pilot trainees and multi-
motor trainees. The fighter group
would pursue a course lasting 22
1/2 weeks; cadcts would start in
basic trainers and move on to
advanced trainers and_ tactical
fighter planes. The course for the
multi-engine group would be the
same length, but the cadets would
start with nine weeks in primary
trainers, skip the basic stage, and
go directly to multi-cngine
advanced schools. Those who
washed out of the fighter track
would be reassigned to the multi-
engine track, the reverse was not
true. Whatever the reason, the
Army Air Forces never followed
up on the proposal.

Central Instructors School

In any event, the problem of
securing sufficient qualificd instructors remained. At
first, each of the regional training centers sct up their
own schools to train instructors. In the summer of
1942, Kelly Field opened a school to provide
standardized training for those who would scrve as
instructors at bases operated by the Gulf Coast Air
Forces Training Center, a new designation occasioned
by the creation of the Army Air Forces Flying
Training Command earlier in the year to provide
direction for the three regional training centers. Flying
Training Command established its headquarters in
Fort Worth, Texas. The school at Kelly graduated its
last instructor pilots in February 1943, and the
following month the Army Air Forces closcd the basic
flying school (and the aviation cadct program) at
Randolph and replaced it with the Central Instructors
School to train instructors for all Flying Training
Command units

Anyone slated to become a primary, basic,
advanced single-engine, or advanced twin-engine
mstructor went through the school at Randolph Ficld
So, too, did those sclected to serve as ground school
Instructors, as well as officers scheduled for duty as



per hour and a maximum speed of 102 miles per hour.
When he completed primary school and moved into
basic, he also moved into a different aircraft, the
Douglas BT-2, a biplane capable of cruising at 113

miles per hour and achieving a maximum speed of

133

Along with flying,
cadets learned about
the weather.

The Army Air Corps
began buying a new
primary traincr in 1936,
the Stearman PT-1t3
Kaydet. Another biplane,
it had a_ slecker, less
angular appearance than
the PT-3 and could cruise
at 96 miles per hour and reach a top speed of 135
That same year Randolph also sported two new basic
trainers. The first of these, the Seversky BT-8, was a
squat, all-metal monoplane with a fixed, faired landing
gear. It had the distinction of being the first Atr Corps
basic trainer built expressly for that purpose and had

The Army Air Corps gained a new primary trainer, the PT-13, in 1936.

85



i
|
|

ed

A flight instructor advises a group of aviation cadets (identified by the white bands on their hats).

Ground instruction — included
rigorous examinations for these
aviation cadets.



Brooks Field epitomized World War I-era planning
and architecture.

World War II

The quiet that had typified the 1930s was replaced
at the end of the decade by the realization that war

This World War II soldier stands ready for inspection at Brooks.

was inevitable. By September
1939, plans were finalized to
establish an advanced
program of flight instruction
at Brooks to relieve pressure
at Kelly Field.

The school for combat
observers at Brooks repre-
sented the continuation of the
observer program that had
begun with the balloon and
airship school in 1919.
During the carly years of
World War II, this program
sought to train nonpilot mili-
tary observers and pilot-
observers. The mission of the
school, which graduated

55

approximately 50 combat observer pilots in three
classes, was to prepare combat observers for acrial
reconnaissance and support the ground troops by
carrying cameras in stripped pursuit ships, or serving
in bombing ships as a combination copilot, navigator,
bombardier, photographer, radioman, and aerial

gunner

By carly 1941, it was clear
that this effort at observation
training was not adequate to meet
the needs of modern aerial units
The curriculum in general was
lacking because war experience m
observation had not been available
for two decades, and instructors
were forced to draw heavily on
obsolete methods and _ practices.
The War Department then
designated Brooks as the Army
Air Forces Advanced Flying
School (Observation), and a new
program was instituted that placed
observation training under the
larger umbrella of the advanced
flying school, Concurrent training
of pilots and observers was
instigated with stipulations that
only fliers were trained as
advanced single-engine pilots and

Brooks conducted advanced pilot training using the B-25.


joining the instrument pilot instructor school to form
the centerpiece of Randolph’s mission. Another clear
sign that the war was almost over was an Air Force
decision to keep alive the history of some of its
illustrious units. That resulted in Air Training
Command replacing its four-digit flying and pilot
training wings with two-digit designations. Thus, the
3510th Flying Training Wing at Randolph was
inactivated on May 1, 1972, and the 12th Flying
Training Wing, which was later awarded the
Presidential Unit Citation for its extraordinary
performance in Vietnam, was activated in its stead

A Time of Stability

The remainder of the 1970s and the decade of the
1980s constituted a period of unprecedented stability
at Randolph. Organizational actions took the limelight
during this period. Most notable was the establishment
of the Community College of the Ai Foree (CCAF) at
Randolph on April 1, 1972. The idea behind the
Community College of the Air Force was to provide
the means to blend on-duty technical training and
education expericnces with courses from civilian
colleges into coherent, job-related education programs.
Under the CCAF program, an airman could earn a
Career Education Certificate, which recognized the
complction of a minimum of 64 semester hours of
college-level work. The Air Force considered the
certificate equivalent to an associate degree offered by
a college or university.

The Community College of the Air Force gained
accreditation from the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools in December 1973. It was
important inasmuch as it gave the school academic
credibility. In a further step, Public Law 94-361,
signed in July 1976, authorized the Commander, Air
Training Command to award the Associate in Applicd
Science degree to thosc who had completed a CCAF
study program. On April 25, 1977, the Community
College of the Air Force awarded its first college
degrees to 275 airmen stationed around the world
This marked the first time enlisted personnel had
received college degrees from a military organization.
The college remained at Randolph until 1977 when it
moved across town to the Lackland Training Annex at
Medina. Subsequently, it relocated to Maxwell AFB
in 1979 as part of the package which had realigned
Air University under Air Training Command the
previous year.

97

In 1972 Air Training Command also activated the
Instrument Flight Center at Randolph. The Instrument
Flight Center continued to run the instrument pilot
instructor school, standardized the use of instrament
procedures and training methods for pilots, and
participated with other government and civilian
organizations in developing instrument  systerns.
However, the center’s relationship with Air Training
Command tumed out to be an on-again, off-again
affair. When the Air Force decided it no longer had a
need for a dedicated instrument school, the center
began phasing down operations in 1977, and Air
Training Command inactivated the unit on June 30,
1978

Just over five ycars later on October 1, 1983,
Headquarters USAF reversed the process and
reestablished the Instrument Flight Center at
Randolph. This acknowledged the Air Force did
indeed have a requirement for a central facility to
determine and validate new flight concepts and
instrument flight systems. After a 9-ycar association
with Air Training Command and 20 years to the day
after its initial assignment to Air Training Command,
the Instrument Flight Center was reassigned to the Air
Force Flight Standards Agency on May 1, 1992

New Mission, New Training, New Airplanes

Passage of legislation in 1988 that set up a
Commission on Base Realignment and Closure had a
major impact on the mission of the 12th Flying
Training Wing at Randolph. That commission sclected
Mather AFB, California, home of Air Force navigator
training for many years, for closure by September 30,
1993. Air Traming Command, after reviewing a
number of options, decided it could best accommodate
the navigator training mission at Randolph. To
prepare for that eventuality, the command, on
December 15, 1992, activated the first of three
squadrons that would conduct navigator training at
Randolph; the other two were activated on May 14,
1993,

The first navigator hopefuls began training in the
core course on April 20, 1993, in T-43 aircraft. Under
the specialized concept, all student navigators took the
core course and then advanced to cither the systems
officer, electronic warfare officer, or navigator track.
The systems officer track led to assignments in such
aircraft as the F-1!1, F-ISE, and the B-1; the



delay. Although the new site consisted of only two
dozen farms, the German farmers were not anxious to
sell good land. Fortunately, a local lawyer, Emest J.
Altgelt, helped to put together the options. Being
German himself, Altgelt could speak the farmers’
language, and he convinced them to sell at reasonable
prices. By the last week of December, the Chamber of
Commerce held options on all the property.

While site sclection was taking place, the
chamber’s Military Affairs Committee had been trying
to raise the money to purchase whatever site was
finally chosen. The price tag for the land was
estimated to be about $500,000. Unfortunately, San
Antonio businessmen, displaying a remarkable amount
of apathy, had done little to support the drive. In spite
of General Lahm’s assertion that other citics were
offering free land for the new training facility, San
Antonio still belicved that the government would
appropriate money to buy the land

On December 1, 1927, the Chamber of Commerce
sent a delegation, led by Congressman “Cactus Jack”
Garner (future Vice President of the United States), to
Washington to discuss the new base. When the
delegates requested an appropriation, however, they
learned, much to their consternation, that Congress
was not in a buying mood. Not only were other cities
standing in line to bid on the new facility, but the
federal government also owned land in Florida and
California that could be used as a site

One of the delegates, RJ. Boyle, captured the
crisis that now faced San Antonio, “Any further delay
[not only] will seriously jcopardize our chances if not
defeat our efforts to secure the field, (but] in the event
we fail to sccure the Primary Flying Field we will
eventually lose the flying fields we now have.” To
make matters worse, Congress gave the delegation
until the end of the year to make an offer of a free site
With only two weeks to put together a financial
package, the delegation hastened home.

Needing to raise a great deal of moncy in a short
period of time, the Chamber of Commerce decided to
explore two funding sources. First, William Tuttle,
Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee, and his
Vice Chairman, Luther Clegg, established the San
Antonio Airport Company to solicit contributions
from local businessmen. With newspapers helping to
publicize the campaign, over $100,000 was raised

716

within the first week Although an impressive sum, it
was only a fraction of what was needed, and time was
running out.

The chamber then tumed to the other potential
source of money, the city government. The chamber
wanted the city to buy the land for the new field and
then donate it to the federal government. The city,
however, did not have a half million dollars in
uncommitted funds. Moreover, the city attomey,
Joseph Ryan, had carlicr ruled that the city could not
use public funds for such purposes

Faced with this impasse, the chamber decided to
seck a more reasonable opinion and asked a local
Judge to rule on the issue. Much to the chamber’s
relief, Judge James Sluder ruled that the city could
issue interest bearing notes for what he rather
nebulously referred to as “municipal purposes.” Now
the only problem was how to come up with the
$500,000

The city council devised an ingenious solution to
the problem. They passed an ordinance authorizing
$500,000 in city notes, which was not unusual The
umique aspect was that the notes were backed by
delinquent taxes owed the city! The district attorney,
however, ruled that if the city bought the land with
funds voted from back taxes, taxpayers would hold a
lien on the property, To get around this obstacle, the
San Antonio Airport Company borrowed the money
from local banks to make the purchase and presented
the land to the city, which would then pay off the
company’s note with the moncy appropriated from the
back taxes. On December 31st, the last day of the
congressional deadline, the city informed Congress
that the site was available to the Air Corps as a gift.

On August 4, 1928, the Governor of Texas, Dan
Moody, signed a decd of cession, and two weeks later
the Secretary of War accepted the land. The final
purchase price was a little over $546,000, including
legal feces and commissions, and amounted to
approximately 2,350 acres, which worked out to a
price of about $230 per acre. Since the San Antonio
Airport Company was forced to buy entire farms
rather than just the land it wanted, there were
remnants of land along the outer boundary amounting
to approximately 407 acres. The company sold this
acreage to help pay off the outstanding debt against
the land.



During Enhance
Plus, Kelly
personnel set
records in
shipping A-47,
T-38, and F-5
aircraft to
Vietnam.

ON ni
1

|
|

' Operation Homecoming flights began bringing former POWs to Kelly in February 1973. Crowds of
| sightseers were kept to a minimum, but excited family members made each arrival a festive occasion.
i
|
H
|

37


From 1919 to 1923, Brooks Field operated a balloon and airship school. With its huge airship hangar,
Brooks was sometimes used as an overnight stop on cross-country flights. That was how the C-2 happened
to be in the local area when disaster struck.

Moments after the crash the airship Crosswinds had caught the airship and slammed it
exploded and burned. into the hangar door.

49


Gazeteer

Vanderstucken Field (also known as Alamo Downs
Field). Located 7 miles northwest of Kelly AFB.
Leased by Kelly Field in 1917 and used by Kelly and
Brooks as an auxiliary field until 1944,

Wohlfahrt Field (also known as Marion Field).
Located 2.6 miles north of Marion. Leased in 1932 as
an auxiliary field of Randolph and used off and on
until 1958,

Yturri Field. Located 4 miles southwest of Brooks
Field. Leased 1942-1946 as an auxiliary field of
Brooks.

Zuchl Field. Located 13 miles southwest of Seguin.
Leased from 1932-1960 as an auxiliary field of
Randolph.

Current Area Map

Hwy 281

Loop 1604
ivy 281
Loop 410 10
re
ws Veep '
\QEACKLANDITTM
L ‘ APB 4 KEL Y a
LACKLAND, os ARB
\ANNEX. 7 . v
an ‘ ba
‘ 1 os
1:35
13s
a

114

Lio

Loop 1604
1-35 aes
RANDOLPH
ARB
1-10,
Loop 410
\
yyy 2381
Loop 1604



observation focus of Brooks became the most hotly
debated aspect of the Air Corps during these years
One faction of the Air Corps considered observation
to be an important auxiliary service. Another
recommended more emphasis be placed on the
primary services needed to secure control of the air
(pursuit) and to destroy hostile targets behind enemy
lines (bombardment)

By the early 1930s, proponents of bombardment
had begun to make themselves heard. In 1933 the War
Department concluded that an increase of combat and

54

At left, a soldier carries an Ithaca pump 12-
gauge shotgun while guarding an AT-6 and a
B-24 on the Brooks’ flightline. Below, guards
protect a B-17.

long-range reconnaissance planes and a corresponding
decrease of obscrvation and training aircraft was
needed to rectify the perceived imbalance. By the late
1930s, most of the acrial observation mission had
transferred, leaving only the 22d Observation
Squadron to become the foundation of future aviation

activitics at Brooks. Brooks Field then entered a
decade of low-profile activity that ended only when
the military threats of World War Il became apparent
In fact, although some minor alterations had taken
place, most of the original plan for the base had been
prescrved so that on the eve of the second world war,



than-air units transferred
to Scott Field, Iinois.
Soon thereafter, the
Amny abandoned the use
of the airships altogether

Primary Flying School

As the balloon and
airship school moved
out, the Air Service’s
primary flying school
moved in--in June 1922
The move was part of a
total restructuring of the
Air Service triggered by
the Army Reorganization
Bill of 1920. In the
immediate post World
War II years, students
had gone through primary
flight training either at
Carlstrom Ficld, Florida,
or March Field,
California. However, the
March school closed in 1921 and Carlstrom early in
1922. With primary training at Brooks and advanced
training a few miles away at Kelly, all Army flying
training was concentrated in San Antonio.

used it as a trainer.

Primary flying training would remain at Brooks
until 1931 when Randolph Field opened and took on

Two pilots prepare for a flight at Brooks Field in a JN-4D Jenny. Thousands
of flying cadets learned to fly in this aircraft.

50

Cadet officers stand before a PT-6 in front of the post headquarters. This PT-6
was I of only 15 that the Army procured in the early 1930s. Brooks personnel

that responsibility. Between September 1922, when
primary training began at Brooks, and November
1931, when the first class started at Randoiph, 21
classes containing a total of 3,422 students graduated

The first class to go through primary training at
Brooks Field had 183 students. They were taught by a
team of cxperienced
instructor pilots. Each
instructor was responsible
for some six cadets. Stu-
dents began the six-month
course in the classroom,
before they actually
climbed into the cockpit
of the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.
Most students soloed
after about 10 hours in
the Jenny, and then they
tumed their attention to
such rudiments of flying
as turns, crosswind land-
ings, forced landings, and
basic aerobatic mancu-
vers--loops, rolls, lazy
cights, and the like.



detailed on special duty to Lahm’s office to devote full
time to developing his design

The revolutionary design became the subject of a
stormy controversy between the Quartermaster
General and the Chicf of the Air Corps. The
Quartermaster General wanted to duplicate the design
of March Ficld, California, at Randolph. March Field
had a triangular building area at the entrance to the
field, with the remaining acreage left for flying

purposes. Clark believed this design would work well
for a single unit ficld, but would be too costly and
inefficient for a three- or four-unit operation.

The dispute came to a head on October 17, 1928,
in the office of the Secretary of War, Dwight Davis.
In addition to Davis, among those present were Major
General James F. Fechet, Chief of the Air Corps;
Major General C. F. Cheatham, Quartermaster
General; and Lieutenant Clark. General Fechet argued



weeks in both the primary and basic phases, the Air
Corps was able to continuc the military training side
of the flying cadct program which was based on the
interplay between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen.

Before the year was out, the goal of an additional
4,500 pilots within two years had changed to training
7,000 pilots a ycar. In a matter of months, the goal
was increased to 12,000 pilots a year
To cope with those kinds of mush-
rooming numbers, the Air Corps had
to expand its training base almost
overnight. One of the first things the
Air Corps did was contract in June
1940 for nine more civilian flying
schools to conduct primary training.
But increasing the number of primary
schools was not enough. Randolph
could no longer handle all the basic
training nor could Kelly continue to
offer advanced training for all the
student pilots moving through the
system. Morcover, with the primary
schools spread all across the country,
it was no longer practical for the Air
Corps Training Center at Randolph to

Nothing was set in concrete in those days. Indeed,
before the conercte on some of the new airficlds could
dry, it seemed the War Department was announcing
new pilot production goals--first 30,000, then 50,000,
next 70,000, and eventually 93,000. Each new goal
triggered a corresponding expansion in the number of
contract primary schools, as well as the construction
of additional ficlds to house basic and advanced
training. The constantly
ballooning pilot produc-
tion goals created a
heavy demand for quali-
ficd instructor pilots, a
demand the training cen-
ters were hard pressed
to meet

Worth mentioning, is
an innovative approach
tried by the Gulf Coast
Training Center. In
September 1942, it
hand-picked 400 cadets
for a program especially
designed to graduate
students as service

administer the entire flying training
program.

In 1942 Lieutenant Colonel {later
General) Gabriel P. Disosway served
as Director of Training at Randolph.

pilots, qualified to serve
as instructor pilots but
not prepared for assign-

New Training Centers

The Air Corps, thereforc, opened two new
training centers in July 1940: one at Maxwell Field in
Montgomery, Alabama, and onc at Moffett Ficld im
Sunnyvale, California. The center at Maxwell was
called the Southeast Air Corps Training Center, that
at Moffett was named the West Coast Air Corps
Training Center, and the one at Randolph became the
Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center.

At about the same time, the Air Corps began
construction of another basic school at San Angelo,
Texas, to take carc of the overflow from Randolph.
By January 1941, the Air Corps had shifted some of
Kelly’s hcavy advanced training load to Brooks Ficld.
Just a few months later it set up additional advanced
training schools at Ellington Field and Foster Ficld,
both in Texas. Kelly, Brooks, and Ellington all
became advanced twin-engine schools, and Foster
Field was a single-engine school

89

ment to combat units

The idea was simple--
cut out advanced training and send students through
only primary and basic trainmg. That is what
happened to the 400 members of Class 42-X at
Randolph. They attended a specially tailored course
that compressed the nine-weck primary course and the
nine-week basic course into a combined course that
lasted but thirteen and a half weeks. Somchow,
Licutenant Colonel Gabricl Disosway, Director of
Training at the Gulf Coast Training Center, managed
to squeeze more flying time and classroom hours into
the abbreviated course than students normally
recived.

So impressed were the cadets, that they dedicated
their classbook to him. “A departure from tricd
methods of training is always beset with difficulties
The resourcefulness and energy that is a part of his
personality is the key to the success of the
experimental project in which we have been privileged
to participate.” (The cadets saw something in his



Flying Training at Brooks

In the summer of
1917, Army aviators sur-
veyed a field south of San
Antonio, Texas, as a
potential site for a new
airfield. The site of 873
acres was so heavily
covered with mesquite and
undergrowth that the
Military Affairs Commit-
tee of the San Antonio
Chamber of Commerce
constructed a tower over-
looking the land, so the
inspecting officers could
better view the terrain and
determine the lay of the
land. The irregularly
shaped tract was bounded
on the northeast and cast
by Goliad Road, with the
Old Corpus Christi Road
forming a portion of the
boundary on the south. At the samc time, just a few
miles east at Kelly Field, the first cadets training for

The base was named in honor of Cadet
Sidney J. Brooks, Jr., who died on
November 13, 1917, when his Curtiss
JN-4 crashed as he attempted to land
at Kelly Field.

44

Brooks Field, Texas, was 1 of 27 flying fields the United States used for
training pilots in World War I.

aviation service were logging flying hours aboard
bi-winged Curtiss JN-4Ds or Jennies

Among them was 22-year-old San Antonio native,
Sidney J. Brooks, Jr. For Cadet Brooks, however,
service to country would be short lived. Within
another three months, a tragic flying accident would
take his life. When the United States cntered the war
in April 1917, Cadet Brooks was among the
Americans who responded to President Woodrow
Wilson's call for volunteers. He joined the Army and
went to officcrs' training camp at Camp Funston,
Leon Springs, Texas. There he volunteered for mili-
tary aviator training. Upon passing the physical tests,
he was transferred to the ground school at the
University of Texas in Austin. Cadet Brooks com-
pleted ground school with the highest honors in the
first class sent to the school. From there, he was
transferred to Kelly Field for flying training.

Retired Air Force Major General Eugene Eubank
was a student with Cadet Brooks at both the ground
school and at Kelly. "We were all taking our primary
flying, and naturally it was the subject of most of our



Technical Training Group transferred from Parks
AFB, California, bringing with it all air police
training. Then in July 1957, the 3275th acquired
cryptographic cquipment maintenance training from
Scott AFB, Illinois, In 1958 the Air Staff gave the
3275th two new missions connected with air police
training: the USAF Marksmanship Center and a
sentry dog handler course. Training began late in the
year.

With the closure of Chanute AFB, Illinois, in
1993 and Lowry AFB, Colorado, in 1994, Lackland
gained a number of training programs, including
vehicle operator and maintenance, _clectronic
principles, contracting, logistics plans, services, and
supply.

Teaching English to military
personnel from forcign countrics is
Lackland’s other principal mission.
Such instruction began informally
in 1953. As the United States
increased military aircraft salcs to
friendly governments, more of the
contracts included pilot and
maintenance training clauses. The
3746th Pre-Flight 1 raining
Squadron (Language) activated in
May 1954 to establish a formal
English training program. The
squadron gave way to the USAF
Language School, activated on
January 1, 1960. The Department
of Defense took over the mission
in July 1966 and gave it to the
Defense Language Institute, under
the executive agency of the US
Amny. Finally, in October 1976,
the Air Force became the
executive agent for the Defense
Language Institute English Lan-
guage Center.

training.

Physical Features

Until the beginning of the 1990s, the base retained
the appearance of a World War II temporary training
camp. Facilities crected initially (1941) and in two
great mobilizations (1942-1943 and 1931) continued
to dominate the Lackland landscape. The World War
Il buildings were typical of mobilization construction:

110

Sct on exposed concrete piers, exterior plank walls
covered by tar paper, studs exposed on the interior,
single plank interior divisions attached to studs, low-
pitched composition roofs. The Air Force had long
since either closed or rebuilt most of the bases opened
during the 1941-1943 mobilization. Lackland was a
principal exception

When the War Department decided to give the
base a postwar mission to indoctrinate basic trainees,
not a single permanent structure stood on the
installation, Most of the approximately 1,400
buildings erected for World War II were in place when
the Korean War began in June 1950, many having
been upgraded during the late 1940s. Korcan War
manpower needs greatly execeded the physical plant's

Two students from Germany use a tape recorder to learn English,
Allied students, already schooled in English, are given instruction in
colloquial and technical aviation language prior to entering flying

capacity, even with other bascs joining the basic
military training cffort. The result was another
mobilization building project, including 129 [-type
dormitorics to increase the base's trainee/student
capacity. While these two-story, flat-roofed frame
buildings included several amenities absent from
the 1942-1943 barracks, in essence they were
simply the next generation of temporary housing
for troops


‘y
°@ é *,!
Pe eee
; west, Bp ee ae
a es at Nags, —_ om we +3





increased and decreased
ability to sce in space.
The goal of the tests was
to predict vision changes
and develop methods to
minimize decrements.
Also. the 1980s, a
short-arm centrifuge for
space application was
studied as a method to
prevent the physiologic
deconditioning of space
caused by weightlessness.
The current protective
measures employed in the
shuttle’s extravehicular
operations cvolved
directly from 20 years of
jomt studies by NASA
and Brooks personnel on
altitude decompression
sickness

in

Currently, Brooks
personnel are working to
develop medical protocols
for treatment of exposure
to the vacuum of space
(ebullism). Beginning in 1991-1992, all astronauts
were trained for G exposure at Brooks. Additionally, a
crew reentry anti-G-suit was developed at Brooks, as
were oxygen toxicity studies.

Within a lifetime, the age of aviation was born
and brought man to the moon. These achievements
were possible with the support of aerospace medicine
and the technology developed at Brooks AFB

Kennedy Visit

One of the most important events in the history of
Brooks AFB and, indeed, the Aerospace Medical
Division was the visit of President and Mrs. John F
Kennedy on November 21, 1963. He came to dedicate
a new complex of buildings added to the USAF
School of Acrospace Medicine. Tens of thousands
lined the way from San Antonio International Airport,
cheering as the President made his way to Brooks for
the dedication. His speech that day was his last
official act as President of the United States. Less
than 24 hours later, he was assassinated.

67

An astronaut prepares for a training mission in the rotational simulator. The
simulator is now on display in the Brooks museum.

Vietnam Era

The Vietnam War was an agonizing period in
American history. The United States was not willing
to usc its full military potential to win the war, and the
war’s continuation made it increasingly unpopular.
American military advisors were already serving in
Southeast Asia when the Aerospace Medical Center
became the Aerospace Medical Division in 1961. The
division contributed to the war effort by sending
medical teams and dental operating units to the
conflict area. Although it might scem odd, the
Acrospace Medical Division was involved in the early
development of the gunships uscd in Southeast Asia.
The aircraft allowed the pilot to operate rapid-fire
guns that pointed out the side of the aircraft. Research
for the side-firmg Gatling gun was accomplished at
the division’s Aerospace Medical Research Labora-
tory in Dayton, Ohio. When the Seventh Air Force
asked for additional body armor protection, the
Acrospace Medical Division synthesized mission data
and wound ballistics and worked with body armor
technologists to develop a new flak jacket



Charles Lindbergh (third from left) entered cadet training at Brooks in 1924. One of his instructors,
Lieutenant Claire Chennault (fourth from left), joined him and other flight personnel for this photograph.

flashlight. The entire device could be mounted on a
Baranay Chair. When a subject viewed the instru-
ments in the box while the chair rotated, the instru-
ments indicated the correct movements even though
these movements were at odds with human scnscs
This concept, when used on an airplane, permitted
blind flying in adverse weather conditions, thus
establishing the importance of instrument flying

Ocker found it difficult to convince many older
pilots of the correctness of his findings. Nevertheless,
he noticed that pilots who had once been trapped in
fog or blind flying conditions were enthustastic about
the new method. To prove his faith in blind flying,
Ockcr, with a safety observer, successfully
piloted the first cross country trip with only instru-
ments as his guide, This historic flight took place on

June 24, 1930, from Brooks to Scott Field, Hinois, a
trip of about 900 miles

It was not until World War II that instrument
flying was firmly established in the military. Ocker's
carly efforts in instrument flight instruction were duly
honored when Orville Wright wrote in 1934 that
Colonel Ocker “was the greatest missionary of
instrument flying."

Aerial Observation Center, 1931-1939

Following the removal of the primary training
school to Randolph Field, Brooks became a center of
activity in tactical observation aviation. By 193] a
number of observation squadrons and a medical
detachment had transferred to Brooks Field. The


Gateway to the Air Force

Origins

Lackland Air Force Base dates from Junc 26,
1942, when the War Department scparated the part of
Kelly Ficld lying west of Leon Creck and made it an
independent installation, naming it the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center. From its acronym (SAACC),
many pcople called the base sack, sack-c, or, less

The base was named for Brigadier
General Frank D. Lackland, who had
originated the idea of establishing an
aviation cadet reception and training
center.

affectionately, sad sack. Even with its own name,
townspeople and most military leaders continued to
think of it as a part of Kelly Ficld. The base bore three
awkward and innocuous designations in the first two
years after World War II, adding to the confusion
The War Department finally resolved the identity
crisis on July 11, 1947, by naming the base for
Brigadier Gencral Frank D. Lackland. It was
Lackland who originated the idea of an aviation cadet
reception and training center for Kelly.

104

Prior to 194] the portion of Kelly Field beyond
Leon Creek known as “the Hill" had served at various
times as a bivouac areca and bombing range for
advanced aviation cadets. Construction on the Hill
began on June 15, 1941. Contractors could not keep
up with the quickening pace of world events as they
cleared mesquite and prickly pear; laid out water Imes,
sewers, and strects; and erected frame buildings with
asbestos siding for an Air Corps replacement training,
center. The first class of 1,906 cadets began training
in mid-November 1941, even though barracks were
not ready until mid-December. Until then, cadets
marched a mile up and back cach day from a tent city
on the northwest edge of Kelly's runway

The demand for aircrews became urgent in
America's mobilization after Pearl Harbor. Inductees
picked as aviation cadets (future pilots, navigators,
and bombardicrs) began to pour into Kelly Field
Army Air Forces officials decided to separate pre-
flight training, indoctrinating future pilots on the Hill
and future navigators and bombardiers at Ellington
Field, near Houston, Texas. With this decision, Kelly
officials sct up an informal reception and classi-
fication function to take on these added duties, }t now
received all aviation inductees from the Army An
Forces’ gulf coast training region (much of. the
American south and southwest) and classified cach for
pilot, navigator, or bombardicr training,

On April 30, 1942, the War Department redesig-
nated the replacement training center as a preflight
schoo and cstablished a classification center,
However, the center was not activated until June 10
This expansion in classification operations caused a
need for additional facilities. As a result, in June

contractors began building on the Hill west of Military
Road.

Managing this explosion of activity on the Hill
became increasingly burdensome for the commander
of Kelly’s advanced flying school, whose focus was on
the urgent demand for bomber pilots. Between April
and June 1942, the United States Army Adjutant Gen-
cral sorted out a separation of the two installations,
involving a scries of command directives, general
orders, and construction projects that relieved the


Expansion

During the 1930s,
while the attention of
most Americans
focused on dealing
with the economic and
social effects of the
depression, national
leaders were acutcly
aware of the rising
danger posed by the
aggressive expan-
sionism of both
Germany and Japan
With public sentiment
firmly against any
direct American
involvement overseas,
officials focused their
preparcdness efforts on
measures which could
be promoted as defen-
sive. Amid considerable debate on the exact path
to follow, there was widespread agreement among
both military and civilian leaders that a crucial com-
ponent of any defense plan would be airpower. By the
late 1930s, as storm clouds gathered in Europe and
Asia, money to build up American military aviation
slowly began to flow. In January 1939, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for $300
million for “defensive aviation.” There was a loud out-
cry among those who favored neutrality and no
preparation, but a majority voted with the President.

Presidential pronouncements on aircraft numbers
beguiled the press and public, but Air Corps planners
knew that planes required pilots, aircrews, mechanics,
landing fields, and all the other crucial clements which
turned aircraft into useable military tools. Between
July 1939 and July 1941, Air Corps strength
increased from 20,500 officers and enlisted men to
over 152,000. In 1939 planners anticipated training
1,200 pilots annually, but by the end of 1940, with
war in Europe now a reality, the goal jumped to 7,000
and then kept rising,

Production of trained pilots in such quantitics was
beyond the capacity of the existing training ficlds.
During 1939 the Air Corps began using civilian facil-
ities for primary training. Staff planners expected

27

Cadets in Class 40-E begin taxiing for takeoff and the graduation fly-by.

Randolph Ficld to handle basic flight training, with
both Kelly and Brooks Ficlds serving as advanced
schools. However, it soon became clear that additional
sites were necded, along with an administrative reor-
ganization of Air Corps training in general. In 1940
the Air Corps opencd the Southeast Training Center at
Maxwell Field, Alabama, to supervise training in the
eastern third of the country and the West Coast
Training Center at Moffett Field, California, to do the
same for the western United States. In the center, the
Gulf Coast Training Center, headquartered
at Randolph Ficld, supervised the activities at all
three training fields around San Antonio. In mid-1941
War Department restructuring also resulted in the
creation of the Army Air Forces, although the term
Air Corps did not immediately disappear from either
the public or military vernacular. Indeed, the Air
Corps remained as the chief component of the new
organization,

Field Improvements

At Kelly Field, construction to improve and
replace aging World War I facilities was already
underway by 1936. Funds allocated for the Works
Progress Administration could not be used to purchase
operating supplies or machinery, but they could be
used for construction. One of the first fruits of this at



Life on base was not entirely unpleasant either.
Whatever clsc cadets recalled about their time at
Kelly, one thing they apparently all agreed on was the
quality of the food in the mess halls. Even the
instructors on the field remembered meals fondly
George Beverly, an instructor who later commanded
Kelly, particularly praised the Sunday breakfasts,
while Beirne Lay, Jr, recalled steak, broiled lobster,
and duck along with mounds of fresh vegetables. Even
with fixed mess funds, mess officers found it easy to
buy large quantities of excellent food in the local area,
and during the depression the quality and quantity of it
made a long-lasting impression.

Every cadet was at Kelly because he wanted to
fly. It was the central facet of their lives and some-
thing they all had in common. Many, steeped in the
romantic imagery of gallant aces during World War I,
sought berths in the pursuit section. Pursuit was
widely acknowledged to be the most glamorous of the
specialtics taught at the school, and the nimble Boeing
P-12, which appeared in the early 1930s, inspired
particular affection. But cadets ended up in a
particular section only partly by choicc, evaluations
by instructors during the earlier phascs of traming
played an important role, too. Some cadets used logic
rather than emotion in selecting their specialty. Cadet
Lay, for example, chosc bombardment because he
believed it would help him get a piloting job with an
airline. In any case, cadets had the opportunity to fly
the aircraft of the other scctions as well as those on
which they primarily trained.

As advanced students, the cadets at Kelly did get
some actual experience with guns and bombs
Machine guns were installed in Hangar 16 for specific
training missions, but at least according to one of the
armorers at the field in 1940, no live ammunition was

loaded

During the 1920s, the open fields to the west of
Kelly served as a bombing range. Most of the
ordnance dropped there was inert, though during
construction of the San Antonio Aviation Cadet
Center in 1941 workmen did uncover some live
munitions. By the 1930s, the Air Corps used a range
at Matagorda Island on the Texas coast for gunnery
and bombing practice. At Kelly itself, the Air Corps
maintained a skeet range to provide some training in
the leading of aerial targets. Each pilot was authorized
some 600 12-gauge rounds annually, and just before

23

duck or bird scason the range was always crowded
with eager shotgunners, including base staff officers
and instructors.

The carlier phases of training took placc almost
Night flying was introduced

entirely in daylight.

Many fondly recalled the good food--and plenty of
it-available during advanced flying training at
Kelly.

during advanced training and received particular
emphasis. One approach involved groups of cadets
flying to various fields near Galveston or Dallas
during the day, then attempting to return to Kelly after



108

Basic

Training



support cquipment
became increasingly
sophisticated and com-
plex, requiring usc of new
technologies and innova-
tive programs to mect the
challenges of the future.
By 1951 the Convair
B-36 was arriving at
Kelly in ever-increasing
numbers. With its power-
ful R4360 engines, the
B-36 rapidly took the
place of the B-29. It was
the first American bomber
| capable of reaching any
target on carth, hence its
nickname--Peacekeeper.

Six R4360 engines
powered the XC-99,
which arrived at Kelly in
1950. As the largest trans- The XC-99 was so closely associated with Kelly that few remember it
port plane to date, the originally was built for Strategic Air Command.

XC-99 (a converted B-36)
sect many world cargo-
hauling and distance records. The longest flight, began in August 1953. Carrying 61,000 pounds of
12,000 miles to Rhein Main Air Base, Germany, vital cargo, it flew to Germany via Bermuda and the

|

Azores and came
back a week {ater
carrying another
62,000 pounds
Every place the
XC-99 landed,
newspaper, radio,
and television
reporters were

present to convey
to the public the
excitement of the
flight. In 1957 the
Air Force, decided
it did not need
large transport
aircraft like the
XC-99. Ironically,
USAF develop-
ment of the mas-
sive €-5 began

only seven years
Kelly workers performed a major modification program on the B-58 in 1962. later.

35


Conclusion

Over the years, the face of military aviation in
San Antonio has changed, almost imperceptibly in
some instances, quite dramatically in others. Lackland
Air Force Base, carved out of Kelly Field and
originally known as the San Antonio Aviation Cadet
Center, has made its mark without even having a
runway. It did that as the home for preflight training,
Officer Candidate School, Officer Training School,
English language training for foreign students, a
variety of technical training, and, above all else, basic
military training. Today, it remains the place where
virtually every enlisted person who enters the Air
Force undergoes basic training.

On the northeast fringe of San Antonio,
Randolph Field is still training people how to fly--
with some notable variations. Instructor pilots begin
with prospective pilots and test their mettle in a
challenging flight screening program. They also
teach others how to be instructors in the fighter-
bomber and airlift-tanker tracks of specialized
undergraduate pilot training. Other instructors help
new pilots make the step up to fighter aircraft, and
instructor navigators prepare both Air Force and

112

Navy students for navigation duties on selected
aircraft.

Across town, Brooks Field got out of the pilot
training business at the end of World War Il, only
to resume that training during the Korean War,
this time for reservists. In 1959 Brooks Air Force
Base became the home of the USAF Aerospace
Medical Center, and since then it has grown into a
major medical research facility, the Armstrong
Laboratory, one of the Air Force’s four super
laboratories.

At nearby Fort Sam Houston, the airplane dis-
appeared from the old Remount Depot early on--
when Kelly Field opened in 1917. As for Kelly Field,
it set aside its flying training activities early in 1943
and became a huge industrial complex that over-
hauled, repaired, and modified aircraft engines and
related equipment. Today, Kelly Air Force Base
hosts the San Antonio Air Logistics Center, but the
center closes and the base realigns in July 2001.
Its storied history, however, will live on.


Aviation Medicine

The School of
Aviation Medicine

At the beginning of
World War I, medical
officers did not under-
stand the unique medical
problems of aviation. In
effect, if the pilot seemed
healthy and had no
obvious defects of vision,
coordination, or balance,
then it was assumed that
he could fly as easily as
drive a car. Efforts to
devise a medical stand-
ards test for pilots caused
some colorful rumors. For
example, rumor had it that
the “needle test” called for
a candidate for pilot train-
ing to be blindfolded while
holding a needle between
his thumb and forefinger.
Then when the applicant
least expected it, a pistol
would be fired. If the applicant was so startled by the
discharge that he punctured his finger and drew blood,
he was disqualified because he was too excitable
Another rumor told of a test in which the applicant
was hit over the head by a mallet. If he was coherent
within the first 15 scconds after being struck, he was
considered sufficiently resistant to concussion to make
a good candidate for pilot training,

In late 1917, when Lieutenant Colonel
Theodore C. Lyster became the first Chief Surgeon,
Aviation Section, Signal Corps, he called for further
medical research to understand aviation medical
problems. Statistics showed there was an appalling
death rate among flying cadets, and most of those air
fatalities were not due to enemy action, Lyster noted
that the British had dramatically reduced their pilot
casualties by instituting a special aviation medical
service. The British had found among other things that
exhaustion, functional disorders, and physical unfit-
ness caused pilot deaths.

59

This building was the first home of the School of Aviation Medicine in San
Antonio. The school moved from New York to Brooks in 1927 and remained
there until 1931 when it transferred to Randolph along with the primary
flying school. The Schoo! of Aviation Medicine returned to Brooks in 1959.

Following the British lead, Lyster recommended
that a research board be established with “discre-
tionary powers to investigate all conditions affecting
the physical efficiency of pilots to carry out experi-
ments and tests at different flying schools, to provide
suitable apparatus for the supply of oxygen,” and
finally, “to act as a standing organization for
instruction in the physiological requirements of
aviators.” In addition, it was seen immediately
necessary to train medical officers in aviation medi-
cine. Physicians trained in this arca would be called
flight surgeons. A medical research board was
established in October 1917

Then in 1918, a Medical Research Laboratory
opened at Hazelhurst Field, in Mineola, New York.
Not long after the schoool moved to adjacent Mitchel
Ficld. Instead of research, its major cmphasis became
education. Physicians were traincd in aviation medi-
cine. In 1922 the laboratory's name was changed to
the School of Aviation Medicine



109


Just a few wecks after the War Department
accepted the site, the field received a name. Captain
William M. Randolph, a native of Austin, Texas, had
entered the Army in 1916. He received his wings in
1919 following pilot training at Kelly, After a tour in
the Canal Zonc, he rctumed to Kelly in 1927 as
Adjutant of the advanced flying school. In 1928 he
was selected to a committee, along with several other
officers, to recommend a suitable name for the new
training field. On February 17, 1928, Captain
Randolph was killed when his AT-4 crashed on
takeoff from Gorman Field, Texas. A member of the
committee thought the ficld should be named after
Randolph, and on September 27, 1928, the War
Department officially approved the name.

Design

The design of Randolph Field, oddly enough, had
been drawn up before a site was selected for the new
airficld. In fact, a site was selected to fit the design,
rather than the reverse, saving a full year in the start
of construction. The layout of Randolph was unique

By October 1929, workers had laid out the
major streets that would make up the
Army Air Corps’ newest “Air City,”
Randolph Field.

i

The War Department honored a native Texan,
Captain William M. Randolph, when it selected
Randolph Field as the name of the new flying
installation under construction just outside San
Antonio,

and revolutionary for the times. The concept was the
idca of First Licutenant Harold L. Clark. Licutcnant
Clark had enlisted in the Army during World War I
and volunteered for flying service. He completed
flying training in 1918 and served as a flying and
gunnery instructor. In carly 1927, while stationed at
Wright Field, Ohio, Clark requested a transfer to
Kelly Field. Because he had requested a transfer,
Clark arrived at Kelly in the doghouse and was
assigned as dispatch officer in the motor pool.

After arriving in San Antonio, Clark began
reading articles in the local press about the formation
of a consolidated flying training center. Having some
training as an architect prior to his military service,
Clark viewed the proposed training center as an
architectural problem. For his own amuscment, he
began to make sketches on the backs of dispatch
sheets. As sketch after sketch followed, Licutenant
Clark began to build his entire layout along
revolutionary lines. Clark set out to avoid what he
viewed as a horrible layout at Kelly where, because of
the prevailing winds, all landings had to be made over
the hangars. His sketches evolved into what was
termed an “Air City.”



abrupt halt on December 7, 1941. The surprise attack
by Imperial Japanese forces on the American naval
base at Pearl Harbor and Army airficlds and other
installations in Hawaii, followed by Japanese attacks
on American forces in the Philippines, catapulted the
United States into World War II. If not yet fully ready
to mect the demands of war, the Army Air Forces was
already expanding in terms of facilitics, personnel, and
aircraft.

Training aircraft were at a premium during the
first ycars of the war. In too many cases, schools
relied on antiquated or inadequate equipment, a situa~
tion which was not entirely new. A 1937 inspector
gencral’s report bluntly stated that Kelly Ficld’s
aircraft were “largely made up of the oldest and
most out of date airplanes in the Air Corps” and urged
that no further bombard-
ment training take place at
the field.

Colonel Arnold N.
Krogstad, commandant of
the advanced flying
school, protested that
graduates from the school
were joining tactical units
three times a year, with no
complaints about their
skill or ability to fly
bombers--or any other
type of aircraft. Krogstad
admitted that some of
Kelly’s aircraft were
“obsolete,” but he argued
that the situation was
Improving as new, more
modem types arrived.

However, as Air
Corps expansion got
underway in 1938, Kelly’s
aircraft inventory still
included large numbers of
obsolete and obsolescent.
plancs. Among these were thirteen P-12 and nineteen
BT-8 trainers for pursuit pilots, fourteen O-25 and
two O-38 observation aircraft, and twenty-four A-17
attack plancs. Bombardment students were forced to
train in a handful of B-4, B-7, and B-18 aircraft, with
only the B-18s resembling the more modern bombers

in development. With only three B-18s assigned, the
advanced school was forced to have some students fly
only as copilots on many training flights. As a tem-
porary expedient, Kelly borrowed a B-18 from
Randolph Field and obtained four C-40 aircraft. These
were hardly bombardment aircraft, but they at Icast
gave some students an opportunity to fly a more
modem, multi-engine planc

In late 1939, BC-1 trainers began to arrive at the
field, with small numbers of AT-6 Texans supple-
menting them in the spring of 1940. By May the
school had fifty-two AT-6s and needed seventy-three
morc. The opening of additional training schools was
a persistent drain on Kelly’s aircraft inventory since
the ficld had to send many of its aircraft to the new
schools. At least officially, Kelly was a twin-cngine

AT-6 Texans were the predominant trainers at Kelly during World War II.

school, and both the BC-I and the AT-6 were single-
engine aircraft. Unfortunately, nothing clse was
available. For nearly a year, future pilots received
their advanced training on the Texan. Not until
September 1942 did Beech AT-10 and Curtiss AT-9
twin-engine trainers arrive at Kelly in suitable



EME

Parked in front of base operations at Randolph AFB are the three aircraft--the T-37 (primary phase), the
T-41 (flight screening), and the T-38 (basic phase)--that the 3510th Flying Training Wing used in

undergraduate pilot training.

the relatively new T-37 in the primary phase and the
workhorse T-33 in the basic phase. When Craig AFB,
Alabama, was named as one of the bases to conduct
the consolidated program, Air Training Command
moved the basic pilot instructor school back to
Randolph where it had resided 10 years earlier. For
the time being, there was no such school for those
slated to become T-37 instructor pilots; they received
upgrade training at their home base

At Randolph on St Patrick’s Day in 1961, Air
Training Command took possession of its first T-38,
the aircraft intended to replace the T-33 in pilot
training. It was the command’s first trainer capable of
supersonic speed. By mid-year 15 of the T-38 Talons
had arrived at Randolph to take part in an cxtensive

95

program to assess thc new syllabus and the T-38"s
suitability as a basic trainer. As part of the test and
evaluation, student pilots who had just finished T-37
primary training at Webb AFB, Texas, in Class 62-F
moved to Randolph and went through T-38 basic
training where they earned their wings on March 30,
1962, in Class 62-FZ

Meanwhile, another brand new aircraft had
appeared on Randolph’s runways-the T-39A
Saberliner. By September 1961, Randolph had five
T-39s which the command intended to use in the
instrument pilot instructor school (IPIS), recently
transferred from James Connally AFB, Texas. The
movement of the highly-regarded instrument pilot
instructor school, sometimes referred to informally as



expanding into a permanent installation and becoming
Brooks Field in February 1918.

The contractor for the construction of facilities on
Kelly Field Number 2 was Stone and Webster.
Eventually, this Massachusetts firm erected over 100
buildings on the field, including 24 hangars, 12 large
barracks, officers’ quarters, mess halls, repair shops,
garages, and administrative buildings. This
long array of buildings ran a mile and a half
east to west along a road from the site of today’s
operations hangar to the current location of the Texas
Air National Guard facilitics. Up to 6,000 workers
were on the field, with as many as 50 or more at work
on any single building. Laborers were on the job seven
days a week.

Stone and Webster turned the new facilities over
to the Air Service officially on October 1, 1917, but
by that time the field was already in usc. With 24
large hangars and 3 big classroom buildings, Kelly
Number 2 could accommodate 500 flying students, up
to 75 instructors, and over 200 planes. Almost
immediately the field became the center for flying
instruction, and the hangars and shops at Kelly
Number | became almost entirely repair and mainte-
nance facilities. In addition, Kelly Number | remained
the home of the reception and training center.

By the fall of 1917, the Provisional Aviation
School Squadron officially was known as the Recruit
Camp. On October | the squadron was renamed as the

First Training Brigade. From the beginning, it served
as the first military home for the thousands of recruits
coming into the Aviation Section (later, Air Service).
During the first two months of operation at Kelly
Field, new recruits helped build their own quarters and
assisted hired laborers in clearing and leveling the
flying field. From early Junc, with the arrival of
Coloncl Tayman, some order began to emerge from
the chaos of hurried expansion.

Officials began testing and classifying recruits by
skill, assigning them to various acto squadrons on the
basis of this testing. Once a new aero squadron
reached a total of 154 men, it transferred to a new
location for final training. The first of these squadrons
Ieft Kelly in August. By October 1917, Kelly Field
had formed and transferred 80 squadrons to other
locations. Another 50 left the base in November.

This flood of men was beyond the capacity of the
First Training Brigade, so in December a Sccond
Training Brigade was formed, followed by a Third
Training Brigade in May 1918. On Christmas Day
1917, despite the number of squadrons leaving for
other locations, just under 39,000 men were crammed
onto the field. By this time, Kelly was the clearing
house for all the other aviation training fields. On the
average, six squadrons left the ficld every day, most to
form the initial cadre at other training fields. Over
15,000 enlisted men shipped out in January, but
another 47,774 recruits arrived to replace them. Only
the arrival of 750 newly minted officers from the

At the main gate in 1917, visitors turned left to Kelly Number 1 or right to Kelly Number 2.

10


The plan was unique in that the building arca was
centered on the field, with streets laid concentrically,
while the aircraft ramps and runways were located on
three sides of the ficld, thus forming a square
perimeter framing the circular layout of the interior
section of the field. The intention was to divide the
circle into four quadrants, each given over to a distinct
function; three accommodating primary, basic, and

advanced flying schools and the fourth the shop and
service area

Borrowing from the local architecture of the area,
Clark designed his air city in the popular Spanish
Mission style. With his final drawings in hand, Clark
went to see General Lahm’s executive officer and
asked him if the board of officers considering sites for
the airfield would like to look over his sketches The
executive jumped up and told Clark, “Come on, the
board is meeting right now in General Lahm’s office. I
want him to see this.” General Lahm liked the plan
immediately, and on December 5, 1927, Clark was



gold at all times. For this first two wecks*
period we were not permitted to Icave the
cadet area.

For the first four months we were under the
guidance and jurisdiction of the “Upper-
Class,” who were the cadets in the sccond or
basic training stage. To them, we were
ignorant “Dodos” [a specics of bird that is
unable to fly]. Their wishes were commands.
If they wished anything--a pocm to be
memorized or dramatized--a submissive
“Dodo” was called upon.

The upper-class were highly respected, even
worshipped--They had successfully survived
the hazardous “washing out” period of
training! We were allowed only three answers
“Yes, Sir!” “No, Sir!” and “No excuse, Sir!”
We were served after they had had the choice

Besides following the wishes of their upper
classmen and attending to military and flying
training requirements, cadets also had to prepare
for routine quarters inspection.

morsels from the platters, and we in turn
acted as Jesters for their amusement at the
table,

The amusement of the upper class was not
confined to the dinner table. A dodo could not walk in
the cadet area; he had to trot. He also had to bank all
his turns by extending his arms with the arm on the
outside of the turn higher and the arm in the direction
of the turn lower. A dodo had to wear his goggles
around his neck until he had soloed and only then
could he wear them on his forchead. On mornings
when grapefruit was on the menu, he often had to
wear them in flying position, not for protection but
mainly to remind him of the limitation goggles
imposed on his range of vision, On a lighter note,
whenever a dodo passed a mail box he came to a stop,
took off his hat, and bowed low. The mail box
received this honor because it was the place they
deposited mail for the girl back home. He also had to
commit to memory and be able to recite at a
moment’s notice such things as the pre-takcoff
checklist or the name and location of all Air Corps
stations

After two wecks of intensive military training,
cadets fell into a fairly routine schedule split about
evenly between ground training and flying training. In
primary training, students studied all manner of
subjects in ground school: the theory of flight, the art
of navigation, metcorology, airplane maintenance, the
workings of internal combustion engines, gunnery,
and radio code, These subjects remained the staples
of the curriculum with little change in the hours
afforded cach subject from the opening of Randolph
until the early days of World War II. Cadets received
75 hours of instruction on airplane engines in 1931
and 72 hours in 1939; in airplane maintenance they
received 25 hours in 1931 and 28 hours in 1939; and
So it went. In all, cadets received 308 hours of ground
trang in 1931 and 341 hours in 1939, with most of
the increase due to the addition of 20 hours of
mathematics and 10 hours of military law.

{t was much the same story in the cockpit as in
the classroom. The curriculum remained remarkably
stable during the 1930s, There were significant
changes, however, in the airplanes uscd in both the
primary and basic phases of’ instruction. A flying
cadet in 1931 began his training in a PT-3, a
Consolidated biplane with a cruising speed of 81 miles



Forced to find a new home, the handful of pilots
and men first went back to College Park, Maryland,
where the Signal Corps decided to locate a flying
school (the same place Lahm and Humphreys leamed
to fly.) Although convenient to the War Department,
allowing officers to perform double duty by flying at
the school and handling staff chores in the Signal
Corps section, bad weather made College Park
unsuitable in winter. So, in the fall of 1911, the flyers
relocated once more, this time to Augusta, Georgia,
where they stayed until spring when they migrated
back north to College Park,

For a brief period in 1915-1916, the Remount Depot at Fort Sam Houston
was the home of the Ist Aero Squadron. The depot later became Dodd Field.

Five officers and seven aircraft made up the entire
contingent of the Acronautical Section when it
returned to Augusta in late 1912. Amid relatively
routine cross-country flying, however, abruptly orders
arrived in February 1913 for the flyers to report to
Texas City, Texas, immediately. Ironically, General
Carter, who found aircraft dangcrous and useless in
1911, now necded them to augment his Second
Infantry Division, engaged in guarding the border with
Mexico against raids spawned by the cbb and flow of
fighting in that country’s on-going revolution

Within a few wecks, it was evident that no major
operations would take place along the border.
However, instead of returning to Augusta, the airmen
now found themselves ordered to North Island. There,
the Signal Corps established a small training school.
In April of 1914, the sudden eruption of the crisis that
would lead to American occupation of Veracruz,
Mexico, brought five pilots and three planes to
Galveston, Texas, too late to join the expedition. In
June Congress shored up the unsteady organizational
foundation by establishing the Aviation Section of the
Signal Corps on a permanent basis. Three months
later Foulois took com-
mand of the Ist Aero
Squadron at North Island

In 1915 as European
aviators began the difficult
process of transforming
fragile wood and fabric
machines into deadly
weapons of modern war-
fare, American eyes fixed
once morc on the rising
possibility of trouble
along the border with
Mexico. A detachment of
the Ist Aero Squadron
began operating out of
Brownsville and Mission in
the Rio Grande valley in
April. In July Foulois took
the remainder of his
squadron to Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, partly to
practice coordinating
observation with artillery
and partly to bring them
closer to the likely scene of
action.

Back to San Antonio

Fort Sill was only an intermediate stop. The final
destination of the Ist Acro Squadron was a place
familiar to many of its members and especially its
captain--San Antonio. In November 1915, the Ist
Acro Squadron tackled its longest overland flight,
traveling in stages to take up residence at the former
Remount Depot at Fort Sam Houston. Military flying
was back in the Alamo City.


108

Basic

Training



crowd of over 15,000 people attended the formal
ceremony. Mayor C.M. Chambers of San Antonio
made the official presentation of Randolph Ficld to
Gencral Fechet, Chief of the Air Corps. Escorted by
General Lahm, Mrs William M. Randolph, widow of
Captain Randolph, raised the first flag over the
installation. The program concluded with the spec-
tacular sight of 233 planes from Brooks and Kelly
Fields, Fort Crockett (Galveston, Texas), and Fort
Sill, Oklahoma, passing overhead in what was
described as “the largest assembly of aircraft in the
world.”

A month after the dedication, General Lahm, who
came to be known as “The Father of Randolph Field,”
tumed over command of the Air Corps Training
Center to Brigadier General Charles H. Danforth
General Lahm’s place in Randolph’s history was
guaranteed

By the autumn of 1931, Randolph was ready for
business, On October 1, the Air Corps Training
Center moved its headquarters from Duncan Field to
Randolph. The flying school at Brooks Field
transferred to Randolph on October 20, while the
school at March Field transferred on October 25. To
transfer the traming aircraft from March to Randolph,
the Air Corps Training Center designated 19 officer
pilots to act as flight leaders for the cadets to fly the
aircraft to Randolph. The officers and 92 flying cadets
ferricd a total of 11] training aircrafi to Randolph

On October 25, 1931, with 162 officers and 1,432
enlisted men attached to 13 organizations, Randolph
Field came into official existence as the headquarters
for the Air Corps Training Center. The first pilot
training class, composed of 210 cadets and 99 student
officers, began training on November 2, 1931.

Flying Cadets at Randolph

Most of the students--about three out of four at
the time Randolph opened--came directly from civilian
life. The rest were mostly recent West Point graduates
or fine officers transferring to the Air Corps, along
with small numbers of noncommisstoned officers and
Reserve and National Guard officers. When it came to
flying, they all recived the same training. For those
who arrived at Randolph directly from civilian life,
there was more. As flying cadets, they entered a
demanding program that included a heavy dose of

82

military training and led to a commission in the Army
Air Corps, as well as their pilot’s wings. The term
flying cadet was in use throughout the 1930s. On
July 3, 1941, flying cadets became aviation cadets
To become a flying cadet. an applicant had to be an
unmarried, male US citizen between the ages of 20-27
with at least two years of college. If he did not have
the required college experience, he had to be able to
pass a test examining his knowledge of United States
history, genera! history, English grammar and com-
position, geography, mathematics, and physics
Needless to say, he also had to be in excellent health
and sound physical condition

With the opening of the Primary Flying School at
Randolph, San Antonio once again became the home
of all Air Corps pilot training. Actually, the term
primary was a misnomer inasmuch as the school at
Randolph conducted both the primary and basic
phases of instruction before the students moved across
town to Kelly Field for advanced training. Each phase
lasted about four months. Thus, student pilots spent
approximately eight months at Randolph Icarning the
fundamentals of flying and then spent four months at
Kelly where they made the transition to  scrvice
aircraft and reccived more specialized training

From the first day they sct foot on Randolph,
flying cadets were put through their paces. In the
words of one of the earlicst graduates

1 was in the second class to begin training at
Randolph Field, the “West Point of the Air,”
No sooner had I arrived at the gates than the
reason of that title was made clear to me. As
well as Icarning to fly, there were other things
to be learned and the first of these was
discipline. For the first two wecks we did
close order drill for fifty minutes out of every
hour, with a ten minute rest period, for ten
hours a day. .

We were issued our clothing, which had to be
folded a certain way, placed in a particular
spot in our lockers and kept in order at all
times. Our tailor-made uniforms had to be
kept spotless and creased.

. We had to keep our bunks made and our
rooms spotless at all times. The brass buckles
on our uniforms must shine like burnished



Gateway to the Air Force

Origins

Lackland Air Force Base dates from Junc 26,
1942, when the War Department scparated the part of
Kelly Ficld lying west of Leon Creck and made it an
independent installation, naming it the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center. From its acronym (SAACC),
many pcople called the base sack, sack-c, or, less

The base was named for Brigadier
General Frank D. Lackland, who had
originated the idea of establishing an
aviation cadet reception and training
center.

affectionately, sad sack. Even with its own name,
townspeople and most military leaders continued to
think of it as a part of Kelly Ficld. The base bore three
awkward and innocuous designations in the first two
years after World War II, adding to the confusion
The War Department finally resolved the identity
crisis on July 11, 1947, by naming the base for
Brigadier Gencral Frank D. Lackland. It was
Lackland who originated the idea of an aviation cadet
reception and training center for Kelly.

104

Prior to 194] the portion of Kelly Field beyond
Leon Creek known as “the Hill" had served at various
times as a bivouac areca and bombing range for
advanced aviation cadets. Construction on the Hill
began on June 15, 1941. Contractors could not keep
up with the quickening pace of world events as they
cleared mesquite and prickly pear; laid out water Imes,
sewers, and strects; and erected frame buildings with
asbestos siding for an Air Corps replacement training,
center. The first class of 1,906 cadets began training
in mid-November 1941, even though barracks were
not ready until mid-December. Until then, cadets
marched a mile up and back cach day from a tent city
on the northwest edge of Kelly's runway

The demand for aircrews became urgent in
America's mobilization after Pearl Harbor. Inductees
picked as aviation cadets (future pilots, navigators,
and bombardicrs) began to pour into Kelly Field
Army Air Forces officials decided to separate pre-
flight training, indoctrinating future pilots on the Hill
and future navigators and bombardiers at Ellington
Field, near Houston, Texas. With this decision, Kelly
officials sct up an informal reception and classi-
fication function to take on these added duties, }t now
received all aviation inductees from the Army An
Forces’ gulf coast training region (much of. the
American south and southwest) and classified cach for
pilot, navigator, or bombardicr training,

On April 30, 1942, the War Department redesig-
nated the replacement training center as a preflight
schoo and cstablished a classification center,
However, the center was not activated until June 10
This expansion in classification operations caused a
need for additional facilities. As a result, in June

contractors began building on the Hill west of Military
Road.

Managing this explosion of activity on the Hill
became increasingly burdensome for the commander
of Kelly’s advanced flying school, whose focus was on
the urgent demand for bomber pilots. Between April
and June 1942, the United States Army Adjutant Gen-
cral sorted out a separation of the two installations,
involving a scries of command directives, general
orders, and construction projects that relieved the


In addition to B-29 combat crew
training, Randolph hosted several other
widely diverse missions in the 1950s. In
fact, in 1954 B-29 training had to be
curtailed midway through the year, so the
basc could establish a four-engine trans-
port school, using the C-119. Student
training began in July. A few months later,
in October, Randolph began training pilots
to fly the Air Forco’s latest acquisition, the
B-57. While some classroom instruction
took place, no students flew the B-57 in
1954.

It was November before the base got
its first four B-57s, and another four
aircraft arrived in December. From the
start, there were vexing maintenance
problems that drove the B-5S7 in-com-
mission rate down to seven percent.
Besides maintenance difficulties, there was also a
problem with finding qualificd instructors. Because
the plane was so new, most qualificd pilots were
assigned to units in Tactical Air Command that were
converting to the B-57. Consequently, the training
program at Randolph had to qualify T-33 pilots as
B-57 instructors.

Both the C-119 and B-57 training programs were
short lived. Neither was still around in June 1956
when the Air Force transferred helicopter pilot
training from Edward
Gary AFB, Texas, to
Randolph. Nor did the
helicopter training pro-
gram remain very long

In July 1958, Air
Training Command
moved helicopter _ pilot
training from Randolph to
Stead AFB, Nevada,
where it also conducted
survival training

Beginning in January
1957, Randolph also con-
ducted KC-97 combat
crew training. A Strategic
Air Command air refucl-
ing wing took over that

93

A flight instructor at Randolph uses a simulator to explain the
operation of a KC-97 aircraft to an aircrew member.

training in July 1958 and remained a tenant at
Randolph until June 1962

Organizational Matters

In the meantime, a series of significant organi-
zational actions had taken place. On July 1, 1957, Air
Training Command discontinued Crew Training Air
Force, which had been at Randolph since its activation
on March 16, 1952, and transferred its mission,
personnel, and assets to Flying Training Air Force,

Building 900 began life at Randolph as the cadet academic facility. Today, it
houses Headquarters, Air Education and Training Command.



designed to study flight and its effects on the
individual, as well as the various systems which
support the crew member while in flight.

Today, the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine
is an integral part of Brooks AFB. It is the sole Air
Force training institution for the aerospace medicine
program, flight nursing, environmental health (mili-
tary public health), bioenvironmental engineering, and
aerospace physiology. The school is intemationally
recognized, and it participates in training and cduca-
tional exchanges with many nations.

Flight Nursing

Flight nursing began
as a concept in 1930 when
a civilian pilot, flying over
a town that had been
devastated by a tormado,
envisioned moving — the
sick and injured to medi-
cal facilities via airplanes
while nurses and techni-
cians cared for them.
Lauretta M. Schimmoler
formed the Acrial Nurse
Corps of America with
the purpose of providing
trained and qualified per-
sonnel to fulfill her vision
It took 12 years before her
concept became a reality,
as the medical depart-
ments of the various scr-
vices and the American
Red Cross would not fully
endorse her idea

Two incidents in
January 1942 gave impe-
tus to the development of flight nursing as an on-going
entity. The first was the mass movement of sick and
wounded soldiers from the Burma-Indochina region to
the United States, which prompted Brigadier General
David Grant, Air Surgeon for the Army Air Corps, to
call for the development of a training school for nurses
and technicians. Gencral Grant recognized the need
for sick and wounded soldicrs to be moved as quickly
as possible with competent medical care given while
they were airborne. The second came as a result of a

61

flight from Karachi, India. Sccond Licutenant Elsic
Ott served as the sole flight nursc on an aircraft
foaded with patients bound for Bolling Field, Wash-
ington, D.C. During the seven day it took to cross
Arabia, Africa, and the southorn Atlantic Ocean, Ott
tended her charges with minimal assistance. Upon
completion of the flight she recorded her recommenda-
tions for future flights. Many of her ideas are still a
part of today’s Acromedical Evacuation System.

In May 1942, the proposal for a School of Air
Evacuation was developed, and a call went out for

A student flight nurse gains practical experience in a C-9 Nightingale trainer
at Brooks’ Department of Aerospace Medicine.

voluntcers from the Army Nurse Corps to train in this
new nursing specialty. The School of Air Evacuation
officially opened in October 1942 at Bowman Ficld,
Kentucky. Two squadrons of nurses and technicians
were trained, but due to the need for their expertise in
North Africa and the Western Pacific area, they did
not graduate. They departed Kentucky on December
25 for their respective areas of assignment. The first
official graduation of flight nurses and medical
technicians occurred on February 14, 1943,





The Kelly Number 2 flightline became a familiar sight to Army flyers of the 1920s and 1930s.

In the 1920s,
Kelly Field used this
facility as its operations
office and tower.

19


emphasized the usc of one instructor for a student's
entire training and the acceptance of responsibility by
the instructor for a student's training, including
progress and problems, such as crashes or other
accidents. Lastly, this new approach called for the
final testing of each student in all maneuvers so that
competency on the part of both instructors and
students could be identified and eradicated.

The War Department charged the cadre at Brooks
Field with the responsibility of developing Smith-
Barry’s system for use at other American airfields, In
July 1918, three Royal Air Force officers, one of them
Captain Smith-Barry, visited Brooks to assess how
well things were going. They must have gone well. In
September a board of Air Service officers also
reviewed what was happening at Brooks, and their
observations led to an announcement by the War
Department that the Gosport system, as developed at
Brooks Field, would be adopted at all Army flying
fields in the United States.

No sooner had the Air Service adopted the
Gosport method for training its aviators, when World
War I came to an end. With the signing of the
armistice on November 11, 1918, the demand for
fliers decreased dramatically, and Brooks, like most
other training facilitics, was affected almost immed-
iately. During the opening months of 1919, pilot
training at Brooks Ficld gradually was phased out,
and the advanced flying school closed its doors in
May.

Balloon and Airship School

Before the month was out, Brooks Field became
home for the balloon and airship school, previously
located at nearby Camp John Wise. The move was
apparently connected with a requirement to provide
surveillance along the border between the United
States and Mexico.

Balloons and airships were the mainstays of the
Air Service’s observation mission. They were uscd
extensively in that role in World War I and were
prized because of their ability to hover, move slowly,
and stay aloft for long periods of time. The school at
Brooks became one of five military facilities in
the United States where instruction in balloon
observation was offered. Its mission was to train

48

pilots for lighter-than-air,  hydrogen-filled
airships. To carry out its mission, the school had three
companies and 285 men

Soon after the establishment of the school at
Brooks, construction began on a balloon hangar in the
ficld south of the airplane hangar line. About 1,000
feet long with a clear span of 125 feet, the 92,000
square-foot structure towered over the semicircle of
smaller airplane hangars. It was built to house air-
ships like the Roma, an Italian airship purchased by
the Air Service at the instigation of Brigadier General
Billy Mitchell. At the time, the Roma was the world’s
largest semirigid airship, measuring 410 feet long with
a capacity of 1.1 million cubic feet of hydrogen. It
was distinguished by its full-length external keel with
built-in cabin and a box-kite arrangement of clevators
and nidders.

Unfortunately, the Roma never was moored at the
majestic hangar at Brooks Field. Not long after the
Air Service purchased the airship, it concluded that its
six Ansaldo engines werc inadequate and replaced
them with more powerful Liberty engines, On its
maiden flight with the new engines, the Roma met
with disaster on February 21, 1922. Flying out of
Langley Field, Virginia, the airship had been in the air
less than half an hour and was sailing along smoothly
at 55 miles an hour, about 600 fect over the Army
supply base at Norfolk, Virginia, when suddenly the
control box at the rear of the ship broke and the nose
buckled. The Roma plunged downward, struck a high-
voltage wire, exploded, and burned. There were 11
survivors, but 13 officers, 16 enlisted men, and 5
civilians lost their lives. Investigations suggested that
the extra speed which the more powerful Liberty
engines gave may have caused the kcel to buckle. In
any case, the casualtics resulted chiefly from fire, and
one important outcome of the accident was the almost
universal substitution of helium for hydrogen in
airships

Within a matter of months, two other airship
accidents at Brooks Field hastened the shutdown of
training. First, the C-2, an airship that was sheltered
at Brooks during a flight across country, slammed into
a comer of the hangar when it was caught by a
crosswind as it was brought out to continue its
journey. Like the Roma, it exploded and burned. Next,
the C-5 airship was damaged during takcoff when a
stray handling guide caught a rail and ripped open the
bag. Following these events, in Junc 1922 the lighter-


instruction as advocated by Colonel Ocker. In 1912
Ocker joined the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps,
where he remained for the rest of his military carcer.
He began his career as a corporal in aviation
mechanics, developing an intensc interest in flying. He
spent his off-duty hours lending mechanical expertise
to the Curtiss Company Flying School, and they
appreciated his help so much that they taught him how
to fly. Ocker qualified for a pilot's license from the
Acro Club of America in 1914 and, thus, became one.
of the elite, a flying sergeant.

Instrument flying, at first called blind flying,
meant flying without being able to see the ground,
either because of cloud cover, night flying, or fog.
Pilots had fucl and altitude gauges on some of the

earliest planes, but no instrument displayed the
orientation of the aircraft. This shortfall caused many
pilot deaths. One of the main problems of carly
aviation was the macho image of the pilots who
believed their natural instincts were better guides than
any instrument aids. Ocker noted that it was a sign of
weakness for pilots to admit they needed instruments
to fly. He recalled that expert pilots could "fly by the
seat of their pants” in fine sunny weather, but not in
blind flight conditions,

Flight surgeons were aware of pilot disorientation
and vertigo, but they were unable to offer solutions to
the problem. Ocker came up with an answer by
inventing a device later called the Ocker Box. The box
contained a bank and turn indicator, a compass, and a

Photographed from the base water tower, the flying cadet complex at Brooks lay just behind hangar row.
This complex contained barracks and classrooms and was used in the training of World War I pilots.

32



It is interesting to note that practically all of the
officers’ quarters leaked in wet weather. The Hot-
Kold heating plants in many residences proved
unsatisfactory. The units were noisy, and the fact that
hot air outlets were placed near the ceiling led to
inadequate and unequal heat distribution. Within a
few years after the quarters were completed, gas-
steam radiators were installed to provide additional
heat, cracks and apertures were caulked, interiors
were replastered when necessary, and exterior walls
were covered with waterproof paint. The Works
Progress Administration
did much of the repair and
maintenance work in the
1930s. Otherwise,
because of the Great
Depression, many of the
repairs could not have
been done.

The cadet area at the
south cnd of the ficld was
composed of four struc-
tures: the academic build-
ing, the administration
building, and two cadet
barracks, The academic
building (presently Build-
ing 900) was uscd to
provide ground school
instruction and contained
offices, classrooms, a
technical library, and a
well-equipped radio room.
The administration build-
ing (presently Building
905) was built at a cost of
$154,000 and contained
administrative offices, a
Post Exchange (PX) branch, a barber shop, a gym, a
bowling allcy, and a large cadct dining hall. Each of
the cadet barracks (presently Buildings 901 and 902)
was constructed for $132,000 and contained 53 bed-
rooms designed to accommodate two cadets cach.
Behind each barracks was a broad picce of asphalt
pavement or ramp which the cadets used to walk off
demerits--hence the term “walking the ramp.”

With its carefully preserved architecture and
luxuriant landscaping, Randolph is known as “The
Showplace of the Air Force.” Few people are aware,

81

however, of the meticulous planning that went into the
landscaping. When appropriating funds for the con-
struction of Randolph, Congress also allocated money
for a 20-acre nursery and several greenhouscs
Captain Norfleet G. Bone took charge of the nurscry
and the landscaping project. To augment the plants
supplied by the greenhouse, Bone collected a varicty
of cacti, yuccas, and desert plants from New Mexico
and west Texas and had them flown to Randolph. Live
Oak and Spanish Oak trees came by the truckload
from Leon Springs.

Randolph Field was dedicated on June 20, 1930, before a crowd of about
15,000. Highlights of the ceremony included the passing in review of 233

aircraft and the raising of the flag by the widow of Captain William M.
Randolph.

The local chapter of the Daughters of the
Amcrican Revolution are responsible for the stately
Live Oaks that linc the present day Washington
Circle, Military Plaza, North Park, and South Park.
During the George Washington bicentennial year of
1932, the chapter presented 120 trees to Randolph.

Dedication

Randolph Field was dedicated on June 20, 1930,
when construction was only about half completed.
Many high ranking military and civilian officials and a



In 1918 the Air Service replaced this stage system
with the British-developed Gosport system, sometimes
referred to as the “all thru” system in US manuals. In
the Gosport system, a single instructor stayed with the
same group of students throughout primary flight
training, and the various stages overlapped. A key
feature of this system, which was tested at Brooks
Field, was the use of a speaking tube by the instructor,
who now sat in the rear seat of the aircraft and could
corrcet errors verbally.

The Curtiss JN-4D or Jenny lined the Kelly flightline in World War I.

While it was a distinct improvement over existing
training methods, the Gosport system was not fully
adopted until late in 1918, meaning that the vast
majority of Kelly’s aviation cadets leamed their skills
in the older stage system. Whichever system was
followed, flying was still a rough-and-ready business
One manual urged pilots to “look over the machine in
a general way” before they climbed into the aircraft
and added the admonishment to “be sure the controls
are working properly.”

Fatal crashes werc, fortunately, fairly rare, but
non-fatal accidents were frequent. Cadet Carl Foster
remembered one such incident:

After some tight eights over the cemetery and
a tower for the other point on a Saturday
afternoon, I came in for a landing over
Hangar | directly into the sun in full view of
the men fined up across the field for retreat
Before | could land, Lieutenant Heartfield
came plunging into me
from my right side and
we crashed. I recall my
nose was terribly itchy
and as I crawled out of
what left of my
plane, Ray Coward came
out in a motorcycle and
said ‘Get in,’ to which I
recall telling him 1
would walk in, and pro-
eeded to fall flat on my
face.

was

Foster did not remember
anything clse until awakening in
the infirmary with the doctor
sewing up his nose. The driver of
the field ambulance (known
locally as the meat wagon) later
told him that on the way to the
hospital he had stopped at a drug
store for refreshments. Coming
out, the driver said he found
Foster and Licutenant Heartfield
engaged in a fist fight over who
would have the first drink.
Cleared by a court of inquiry,
Cadet Foster was soon back in the
air.

His case was not atypical. Another student pilot
remembered losing control of his Jenny and crashing
from about 75 feet. “To be sure my folks would
recognize me when thcy shipped me home in a
casket,” he said, “I covered my face with both hands.”
Opening his eyes hesitantly, the young pilot found
“my feet were still there.” Getting out, he reported to
the officer m charge and was promptly put into
another plane, apparently a technique designed to
ensure that pilots would not losc their nerve after a



only nonpilots as observers. Although new recom-
mendations were offered that would be appropriate
to the needs of the Allics in World War I, the
Program was never the success envisioned. Many
policymakers belicved that the observation program
was based on outdated World War I precepts rather
than the needs of World War II. The view that
nonpilot observation was of little help to the
American war effort and represented something of
a military anachronism resulted in the discon-
tinuation of observation training at Brooks Ficld in
1943.

Although observation training at Brooks Ficld
during the early 1940s was not a success, the
advanced training program was. During most of 1940,
Brooks was designated a sub-post of Kelly Ficld to
assist in the training of military pilots. In January
1941, Brooks became an independent post again.

Now its mission was to provide flying instruction
for the Air Corps advanced flying school. Advanced
flying instruction was to be given for the single engine
BC-1 and AT-6 planes in acrobatic, formation, cross
country, instrument, and night flying. Ground school
courses included signal communication, military
organization, combat orders, air navigation, squadron
duties of a junior officer, and code instruction.

By the end of August 1943, Brooks’ flying school
was renamed again. Now it was called the Army Air
Forces Pilot School (Advanced 2-Engine). It
immediately set forth a program of instruction
desigricd to prepare pilots for B-25s. The program of
instruction included 70 hours of flying training and 60
hours of ground training, plus 12 hours of code
instruction. There were a number of problems
connected with the introduction of the B-25 program.
The foremost was that of obtaining sufficient planes in
proper mechanical condition for flying. With the rapid
shift from single- to twin-engine ships, it became
neccessary to retrain ground crews and pilot instructors
for B-25 use.

On September 15, 1943, an additional pilot
training program was inaugurated. Its mission was
to teach civilian instructors Army pifot procedures
and techniques. During the 16 weeks the school
was in operation, students flew thousands of hours
in PT-19s with no major accidents and no fatalities

In 1943 members of the Women's Army Corps
or WAC began reporting for duty at Brooks.
These women took over much of the clerical work
and hospital laboratory duties so that men could be
released for combat duty. In addition, members of
the Women’s Army Corps filled positions at the
ficld's post office and bakery

Also during this time, there were great changes
on the base. By the end of the war, the size of the
ficld as well as the number of buildings on the field
had increased dramatically. If the first commanding
officer at Brooks had passed through the main gate
in 1944, he would have been astonished at the pace
of expansion. New and improved runways had been
built to meet the necds of the latest and fastest
aircraft. Immense hangars had risen to house the
large B-25 bombers. Substantial two-story, steam-
heated barracks had been crected. Lawns had been
planted, and trecs, flowers, and shrubs had taken
root

Reserve Training

While pilot training at Brooks Ficld concluded
with the end of World War II, the base took on a
new mission in the 1950s. In September 1951 in the
midst of the Korcan War, the Air Force established
a reserve training center at Brooks Air Force Base.
It was commanded by Licutenant Colonel George
Keene, Jr.

Assigned to the center was the 907th Air Reserve
Wing. Under the leadership of Colonel John H. Foster,
a San Antonio businessman, the wing held its first unit
training assembly in Hangar 16 on October 27-28,
1951, Conceived originally as a troop carrier unit, the
wing did not reecive its first planes unti] the
summer of 1952. The planes were T-6 Texans, an
indication of the 907th’s new pilot
training

mission,

Almost before it began its new mission, the
907th Air Reserve Wing was replaced by the
8707th Pilot Training Wing (Single-Engine). On
the first anniversary of its activation, the 8707th
had six T-6s and two C-46 Commandocs
assigned. That began to change in April 1953
when the wing acquired its first five North
American T-285



|

When Foulois arrived at Fort Sam Houston, the
first order of business was construction of a small
hangar near the mounted drill field which would serve
as a landing field. This task finished, on March 2,
1910, Foulois climbed onto the small seat for his first
solo flight, indeed his first take-off as anything other
than a passenger. Foulois later recalled the instruc-
tions that sent him to San Antonio as “take plenty of
spare parts and teach yourself to fly,” and this he now
did, somehow getting the plane off the ground and
flying lazily around the parade ground until a cracked
fuel pipe forced an abrupt emergency landing. As
Foulois put it, this late winter day in the San Antonio
sky was not just the first military flight over the city,
it was “my first solo, landing, take-off, and crash.”
Undaunted, over the next several months he did just
what Chief Signal Officer Brigadier General James
Allen told him to do: he taught himself to fly, carry-
ing on a regular correspondence with the Wright
brothers (who coached him long distance on proper
procedures). “I was,” he later remarked, “the first, and
only pilot to learn to fly by mail.”

Flying at Fort Sam Houston

During the rest of 1910 and into carly 1911,
Foulois and his small band of enlisted mechanics
modified the Wright plane. For takeoff, the Ohio
brothers used a catapult system in which a counter-
weight dropped from a small tower pulled the aircraft
along a track, helpmg the engine propel the plane
aloft. The pilot landed on skids. However, Foulois and
his men installed a wheeled undercarriage, ending

Foulois
(second from
right) and
his crew
pose with
Airplane
Number |
while at
Fort Sam
Houston
in 1910.

reliance on the track and tower system. As members
of the Signal Corps, they also spent time putting in an
electronic buzzer system at the Army’s target range at
Leon Springs, Texas, northwest of San Antonio.

Foulois also happily experimented with a Wright
Model B Flyer loaned to the Army by millionaire
publisher Robert Collier. Together with civilian pilot
Philip Parmalee, a Wright employee, Foulois parti-
cipated in training flights along the Rio Grande,
exploring methods of cooperation with maneuvering
troops on the ground. The intrinsically risky nature of
flying during this early period was demonstrated on a
flight in Texas from Eagle Pass to Laredo when
Parmalee accidentally shut off the fuel flow to the
engine. Foulois glided the plane to a rough crash
landing in the shallow water of the river. Fortunately,
both men were unhurt, but the Collier airplane
suffered the ignominy of returning to Fort Sam
Houston by wagon rather than under its own power.

Also at this time, pioneer aircraft builder Glenn
Curtiss had a flying school in operation on North
Island, California, just outside San Diego. He invited
military officers to take flying lessons free of charge.
The Army promptly took him up on the offer and
ordered threc junior Lieutenants, Paul W. Beck,
John C. Walker, and George E.M. Kelly, to attend the
school. Back in Washington, a reluctant Congress was
impressed cnough by these early efforts to appropriate
$125,000 for Army aeronautics. Chief Signal Officer
General James Allen used this money to order five
new airplancs in March 1911





In 1940 new-tonstruction at Kelly
permanently altéred the landstape

Kelly was the miniature range building, completed in
May 1937 at the east end of the existing flightline
This unique structure, the only one of its kind ever
built, was supposed to assist in training aerial
observers.

Other new structurcs soon appeared as well. In
1938 Congress provided funding for construction of a
new barracks for enlisted men, a large operations
hangar, sets of quarters for both senior officers and
senior enlisted men, a cadet barracks, and a new head-
quarters and classroom building. These new buildings
sprouted in the previously open fields to the cast of the
old wooden hangars on the Kelly flightline, and all
were complete by mid-1940. Over 50 years later, they
are still in use, often for nearly identical purposes. The
large enlisted barracks was so superior to the
deteriorating 1917-period facilities that the men
referred to it as “Buckingham Palace,” a nickname
now shortened to simply “The Palace.” Directly
across a grassy mall, the structure built as cadct quar.
ters became visiting officer quarters and the home of
Kelly’s Officers’ Club

Other improvements came in the form of concrete
runways and parking ramps. The carliest of these first
appearcd in 1925, a 30-foot-wide concrete and asphalt

28

ramp parallel to the hangar line. By 1941 additional
construction meant that this ramp was now 300 feet
wide and over a mile long. Clearly visible in old aerial
photos, it is often incorrectly identified as a runway.
In fact, student pilots still took off and landed on the
large grass area to the southwest of the flightline,
although the advent of larger, more powerful aircraft
was beginning to demand actual concrete landing
surfaces. Two were built by 1941, one running some
3,600 fect southeast from the east cnd of the hangar
line ramp, crossing over the boundary between Kelly
Field and Duncan Field (once Kelly Field Number |
and since 1925 a separate field and the home of the
San Antonio Air Depot). The second 1941 runway ran
almost duc south from the west end of the ramp for
about 1,500 fect.

Neither was entirely
demands placed on Kelly
Between 1942 and 1944, construction created an
extensive runway and ramp complex, much of which
remains a part of the taxiway system today.

sufficient to meet the
in the next few years

Dark December

Years of often bitter and angry debate over
American foreign and defense policy came to an



into a new organization called the Air Force Materiel
Command. As a part of the new command, the
Human Systems Division at Brooks again changed its
name to the Human Systems Center or HSC.

Although Brooks escaped the effects of realign-
ment and closure in 1995, base officials knew it was
imperative to find new ways of increasing efficiency.
One step was taken on 1 October 1998 when AFMC
designated HSC as the 311th Human Systems Wing
and realigned it under Aeronautical Systems Center,
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, which joined human
factors research at Brooks with weapon system
development as the Aeronautical Systems Center.

This F-100F is the
centerpiece in the
General Bernard A.
Schriever Heritage
Park. Schriever was a
former commander of
Air Force Systems
Command.

7

Another occurred with the announcement in
January 1999 that Brooks would examine innovative
ways to reduce base operating support costs. The
resulting Brooks City Base Concept was a creative
attempt to lower costs to the benefit of both the Air
Force and the City of San Antonio. The concept
would lower the Air Force's infrastructure costs,
while preserving the jobs and skills performed by a
highly technical work force at Brooks. With creative
responses to the challenges of the twenty-first
century, Brooks endeavored to ensure that human-
centered research and development would continue
to make the United States Air Force the home of the
world's premier air and space force.

At left is the Sidney J.
Brooks Memorial
Park, which was
dedicated in 1987.



The School of Air Evacuation began in May 1942 at Bowman
Field, Kentucky, [ts purpose was to train flight nurses. The school
later moved to Randolph Field, then to Gunter Air Force Base in
During World War II,
American forces used the C-47 as their prime medical air
Shown here is a C-47 mockup used for

Alabama, and, finally, to Brooks.

evacuation aircraft.
training flight nurses and technicians.

The School of Air Evacuation also conceived
the idea of using iransport planes, which took
supplies and cquipment to the battle arcas, to
bring patients back from the front for extended
care.

During World War II aeromedical evacuation
crews airlifted over onc million men from the front
lines. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, following
D-Day in Normandy, stated, "We evacuated almost
everyone, 350,000 from our forward hospitals by
air, and it has unquestionably saved hundreds of
lives, thousands of lives."

64

During the Korcan War, avro-
medical evacuation was not initially
uscd as ships transported wounded
soldicrs from Korea to Japan
However, following the airlift of 4,689
casualtics over a hazardous five-day
period, acromedical evacuation
became the preferred method of
moving wounded soldiers from the
combat arca to hospitals in the
Tearward arca.

In 1954 the Air Force introduced
the first aircraft specifically designed
to carry paticnts. The Convair
C-131A Samaritan was for all intents
and purposes a flying hospital. It
could carry 37 ambulatory or 27
stretcher patients or any combination
of both. It was primarily used to ferry
paticnts between military hospitals in
the United States

The first jet aircraft specifically
designed for acromedical evacuation
entered into service on August 10,
1968. Since that time the C-9A
Nightingale has been the mainstay of
peacetime acromedical evacuation in
the United States and in the Pacific
and European theaters of operation
Long range transport of patients in
peacetime has been accomplished
using the C-141 Starlifter, while the
mainstay of wartime transport has
been the C-130 Hercules

Acromedical evacuation is not just a wartime
activity. During periods of peace it is used to transport
military personnel, dependents, retirees, and Depart-
ment of Defense personnel assigncd overseas from
small clinics and hospitals to large medical centers for
extended and specialty care. Brooks Air Force Basc
was the hub for acromedical evacuation in the 1950s
and carly 1960s.

Acromedical evacuation also conducts humani-
tanan missions to transport individuals from anywhere
in the world to medical centers offering specialized
care. The recent transport of two severely burned



Strategic Air Forces in Europe in World War II, he
capped his carccr by serving as the first Air Force
Chief of Staff.

The vast majority of those who helped build the
Air Corps into the Air Force went through Kelly’s
advanced flying school. Hoyt Vandenberg, for
example, who became the second Air Force Chief of
Staff in 1948, won his wings at Kelly in 1924, just as
Lindbergh began his year of training

Elwood R. “Pete” Quesada, leader of XII Fighter
Command and Ninth Air Force in Europe, emerged
from Kelly with wings and commission in September
1925, scant months after Lucky Lindy. As a very
junior lieutenant, Quesada joined then-Major Spaatz,
Captain Ira Eaker (a Kelly-trained pilot during World
War I), and others in pioneering aerial refueling
during the endurance flight of the Question Mark over
Los Angeles in 1929, Better known to a wider
audience than many of these men, Curtis LeMay, head
of Strategic Air Command for a decade and then Air
Force Chief of Staff, finished flight traming at Kelly
Field in October of 1929, a month history recalls for a
far different cause.

The list could go on much longer. Indeed, nearly
every officer who would emerge in a leadership role
during World War Il and the first years of an
independent Air Force climbed into the cockpit of a
Kelly Field airplane. General George Brown, Air
Force Chief of Staff in 1973-1974 had, however, the
distinction of being the last one who did. He graduated
in 1942 just as pilot training was on the verge of
leaving Kelly.

Air Service to Air Corps

In July 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed
the Air Corps Act, the result of several years of debate
on how best to reorganize and strengthen Army
aviation. The act officially changed the name of the
Air Service to the Army Air Corps and also created
the post of Assistant Scorctary of War for Air (a post
unfilled until the 1940s). It also authorized some
expansion of the Army’s air acm, in particular an
increase in officers from 919 to 1,650 by 1932. To
meet its officer goal, the Air Corps required an
additional 1,485 commissioned pilots. Given that a
large percentage would wash out, suffer fatal crashes
or simply give up during training, planners estima

21

that this would necessitate bringing in some 500 flying
cadets per year. Brooks Field was too small to handle
that many student flyers, so in 1926 the Air Corps
reopened the primary flying school at March Field. In
addition, the schools at both Brooks and Kelly were
joined under the umbrella of the Air Corps Training
Center, headquartered at Duncan Field (Kelly Number
]) and commanded by Brigadier General Frank Lahm.
Within a few months, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps
Brigadier General James Fechet recommended a serics
of changes to the training program that climinated the
A Plan in favor of the so-called B Plan

B Plan Training

The first class to enter primary flight training
under the B Plan arrived at March and Brooks Ficlds
in November 1927. Instead of six months at the
primary fields, these cadets would spend cight, with
the course of instruction now broken into two four-
month periods, including the transition from primary
to basic. The successful cadet would then move on to
Kelly Field for the final four months of advanced
training in the same four specialties that existed under
the previous training program.

Of course, by the late 1920s, the venerable JN-4
was gone from the primary ficlds, replaced by the
Consolidated PT-1 Trusty. The main basic training
aircraft, though, remained the old DH-4, modernized
by salvaging wings, tails, and engines from carly
models and adding them to fusclages framed with
welded steel tubing. When cadcts reached Kelly, they
were introduced to actual combat aircraft, albeit older
models which were increasingly obsolescent. These
included Bocing PW-9 and Curtiss P-1 pursuits,
Keystone LB-5 and Martin NBS-! twin-engine
bombers, Curtiss A-3 attack planes, and Douglas O-2
observation aircraft.

Cadets in Training at Kelly

From the late 1920s through most of the 1930s
(as the country experienced the debilitating effects of
the Great Depression, sound came into movies, and
dictatorships in Europe and Asia pushed the world
closer to war), cadct life at Kelly followed a serics of
familiar routincs that created fond memorics for
hundreds of young men. Nearly all the cadets coming
from March and Brooks Fields (and later Randolph
Field) noticed some big differences between where



As early as 1970, the Air Force recognized the need to modify the C-5’s wings. This project became the
largest modification program ever managed by an air logistics center.

Technicians work on one of the many jet
engines that arrive daily for repair.
Kelly’s engine workload is its largest in
terms of dollars budgeted and workload
hours.

38

Changes

In 1974 the San Antonio Air Materiel Arca
changed its name to the San Antonio Air Logistics
Center, but the dedication and support its people gave
to the Air Force mission remained the same.

The C-5, the world’s largest aircraft, entered the
Air Force inventory in 1969. Kelly had both manage-
ment and maintenance responsibility for the C-5 and
its TF39 engine. In the 1980s, Kelly handled the
largest modification program ever managed by an air
logistics center with the program to strengthen the
wings on the C-5A. The F100 engine became a major
engine workload for the center in the late 1970s as
F-I5s and F-16s entered the Air Force mventory in
increasing numbers. Management and maintenance of
the F100 was complicated by its unique, modular
design. In addition, the F100 was the first engine to
measure time between overhauls in terms of cycles, or
throttling up and down actions, rather than flight
hours. Most recently, the center has managed the Air
Force’s newest transporter, the C-17 Globemaster III.

Americans have always looked to the future. For
over 30 years, Kelly has been involved in space
ventures. In 1964 maintenance personnel built three
Apollo capsule trainers for the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), and Kelly has
supplied NASA with its required liquid propellants



After Pearl Harbor, all military bases stood watch against a surprise attack. Here, a gun crew at Brooks
Field watches for incoming aircraft in an air alert drill.

In 1954 Colonel David L. “Tcx” Hill, a fighter
pilot who made his reputation as a member of
Chennault’s Flying Tigers, took over the wing’s pilot
training program. That summer reserve pilots racked
up over 3,000 hours of flying time in T-28s as the
wing demonstrated its readiness. In addition, when the
Air Force began recruiting nonprior service men and
fecding a limited number into reserve wings, Brooks
became the scene of close-order drili for about 200
young recruits in 1954.

At year’s end, Brigadier General Foster announ-
ced that pilots from the 8707th would make a cross-
country training and goodwill flight to Mexico City
Some 70 reservists participated in Operation Com-
padre im February 1955. Upon their retum, they
learned the wing would convert to C-46s. At the same

38

time, the 8707th was replaced by the 433d Troop
Carrier Wing (Medium). As the members of the 433d
familiarized themselves with their new aircraft,
tropical storms began to brew in the Gulf of Mexico
When hurricane winds and flood waters struck
Tampico, Mexico, the 433d was among the first to
respond, ferrying badly needed food and medical
supplics to residents of the city.

In 1956 reservists celebrated their fifth anniver-
sary at Brooks with the arrival of another aircraft, the
C-119 transport. Four years later, the 433d Troop
Carricr Wing moved to Kelly. From the time the
reserve first established a wing at Brooks in 1951,
whatever the numerical designation, the people of San
Antonio have always referred to the unit as the Alamo
Wing.



dark. There was no effort to fly in formation during
these night flights. Cadcts took off individually and
tried to find their way to Kelly by compass or by
highway lights and airport beacons

Getting lost and running out of fucl were constant
worries, as were wind currents which often blew
planes wildly off course or played havoc with dead
reckoning navigation. During Beirne Lay’s time at
Kelly, an entire section of observation cadets failed to

Instrument flying was a novelty when it appeared
at the advanced flying school in June 1930.
Experiments in “blind” flying began in the 1920s, and
Army pilot William Ocker developed a device known
as the Ocker Box which provided essential instrument
information to a pilot and fet him counteract the
effects of vertigo and lack of visibility. When Ocker
came to the advanced flying school as an instructor,
he enlisted the assistance of young Lieutenant Carl
Crane and gained the support of Brigadier General

In the 1930s, cadets wore a slate gray uniform. For dress occasions, they substituted white shirts for their

dark gray ones.

reach Kelly on an overnight flight from Galveston.
With a strong front preventing airlines and contract
mail aircraft from flying, the commercial air ficlds
turned off their beacons that night to save money,
leaving the cadets to find their way by flares and
luck into various landing spots. No one crashed,
but one young pilot found himsclf in Laredo, blown
200 miles off course

Frank Lahm, head of the training center. Initial
instrument training took place in daylight with the
cadet under a hood in one cockpit and an instructor
with unobstructed visibility in the other. Over time,
the cadet learned to fly a complete triangular course
while under the hood. When Air Corps’ cfforts to
deliver the mail turned into a public relations fiasco in
1934, the need for cven more rigorous instrument


|
|

Pilot Training Returns

Randolph Field did
not fie fallow for long. In
the fall of 1945, Army Air
Forces planners looked to
reestablish Randolph as
the “West Point of the
Air” when it came to
conducting both primary
and basic pilot training
In the interim, the Army
Air Forces Pilot Instruc-
tors School returned to
Randolph in November
1945 for a brief stay
before it transferred to
Barksdale Field,
Louisiana, in March
1946. More significantly,
Randolph welcomed the
retum to the base of

Early on, the Central Instructors School established a Twin Engine Group to primary pilot training just
take newly graduated pilots and train them to be twin-engine instructors, The a day after Christmas in
first graduates of that program are shown above. 1945. In those days, the

Amny conducted primary
and basic training at
commandant of cadets or as tactical officers. With a Goodfellow Field, Texas, for whites and at Tuskeegee
maximum student capacity of 1,640 at any one time, Amny Air Ficld, Alabama, for blacks. To get primary
the new consolidated school usually hosted a mix of training started again at Randolph, Army Air Forces
1,200 flying instructors and 440 ground school transferred half of the white student population from
instructors and tactical officers. Between March 1943 Goodfellow to Randolph. The last basic class had
and April 1945, when it moved to Waco Field,
Texas, the Central Instructors Schoo! pro-
duced 15,396 graduates. The school returned
to Randolph in November 1945, and for much
of the next five decades, training instructor
pilots was a central part of the base’s mission

That was not to say Randolph did not
become home for a number of other missions
over the years. For instance, in April 1945
when the Central Instructors School moved to
Waco, the Army Air Forces pilot school
opened its doors at Randolph to provide
transition traiming for B-29 bomber pilots,
copilots, and engincers. In a few months. the
doors would be shut, With the end of hostilities
in the Pacific came the cessation of the use of
B-29s for training purposes. It happened very For a short period of time, Randolph provided transition
abruptly in August 1945 training for B-29 pilots.

91


conversation," he said. Practically all of the 10,000-
12,000 people who leamed to fly during World War J
trained on Jennies, according to the general. "It was
built by the Curtiss people and built by the
thousands." It was common for young aviators
with little flying experience to wreck the planes
"There were wrecks almost every day in flying fields
where lots of flying was going on. Sometimes there
were fatal injuries and other times there were only
minor wrecks."

On November 13, 1917, Cadet Brooks, who had
completed all the flying requirements to eam his
commission and wings except for a final test, became
one of the early aviation casualtics, During the last leg
of his cross-country flight, something went wrong
From an altitude of 2,000 feet, he turned the nose
down in a moderate dive and crashed at the edge of
Kelly Field

The following day in the San Antonio Express,
witnesses said Cadet Brooks may have fainted,
slumping forward on his steering gear. Retired Army
Colonel Harry Hand, who was at the crash site, said
some ycars later that the local newspaper made a
mistake when it claimed that Cadet Brooks was taken
to a hospital after the crash. "He was dead when I got
to him at the crash site," Colonel Hand said. A
military funcral was held on November 15, 1917.
Cadet Brooks was awarded the coveted pilot's wings
and a commission posthumously. (On its 70th
anniversary in 1987, Brooks Air Force Base dedicated
a commemorative garden in memory of Sidney J.
Brooks. Within the garden is a 12-foot marble and
granite monument. Retired Major General Eugene
Eubank unveiled the sculpture

A few weeks later on December 5, 1917, Colonel
Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, acting chief signal officer for
the Army, responded to correspondence from the San
Antonio Chamber of Commerce:

Reply to your letter of Nov. 23 to General
George C. Squier, relative to naming the new
aviation ficld at San Antonio "Brooks
Field," you are informed that this office is
only too glad to comply with your request,
and the new aviation field located near San
Antonio will be known hereafter as the
Signal Corps Aviation School, Brooks
Field, San Antonio, Texas.

A month carlicr the chamber had signed leascs
with the individuals who owned the Jand that would
become Brooks Field. One of the landowners was a
man named Rudolph Keilman. Over a century ago,
Mr Keilman owned a small farm and an Indian trading
store near the site of the base. Whenever he and his
wife, Elizabeth Ann Tice, managed to save a dollar,
they would buy an acre of land. Over time they bought
3,000-4,000 acres that extended from the San Antonio
River through the property that is now Brooks. The
land near the river they farmed; the land at Brooks
they devoted to cattle ranching,

The oldest part of Brooks and the first land sold to
the government was the south scction. Here Hangar 9
remains as a symbol of a bygone cra. Entrance to
Brooks Field was at Gate 4, now permanently locked,
on the west side of the ficld near Berg's Mill. That was
where soldiers stepped off the trains to begin their
training as military aviators. The Keilmans sold the
south section of Brooks to the government at $150 per
acre, a nice return on their initial $1 per acre
investment. Years later, just before World War TI,
Mrs Keilman, then a widow, sold the government land
for the north section of the ficld.

Besides farming and ranching, the Keilman family
was also in the cntcrtainment business. Once the
airficld opened, Keilman's son, Bill, built a huge dance
hall across from Brooks Ficld on the old Corpus
Christi road. Some laughed at him for building a
dance hall way out in the boondocks, but Bill laughed
last when his hall--The Hom Palace--turned out to be
a rousing success. With a central dance floor ringed
by private dining rooms, patrons could dine in private
or open the door and watch a floor show or dance. At
one time or another, many of the country's most
popular bands played there. The Horn Palace's walls
were lined with mounted animal heads, horns, and
stuffed snakes and birds. Most of this collection later
found its way to the Lone Star Brewery, where it
resides to this day.

A chicken dinner sold for $3, a pack of cigarettes
for 50 cents. When asked why he charged so much,
Bill replied that he did not want to cater to anyone
who could not pay the price. Indeed, the clientele often
included movie stars, senators, and governors. During
World War I, Bill hired girls to dance and entertain
the airmen from Brooks Field, and even socicty girls
visited the hall to do their part for the war effort.


The Army Air Corps adopted the BT-9 as its standard basic trainer in late 1935 and used it as such

throughout World War II.

a top speed of 175 miles per hour. Flying cadets could
also receive training in the North American BT-9, a
leaner metal monoplane with retractable landing gear,
it could cruisc at 147 miles per hour and reach a
maximum spced of 170. The BT-9 was the closest the
Air Corps had yet come to a trainer that was similar
to tactical aircraft.

Typically, a cadct spent about eight hours in the
PT-3 learning the rudiments of flying before the
instructor pilot turned him loose to solo. During that
bricf period, he leamed how to operate the controls
and had a chance to practice straight and Icvel flying
and shallow turns before the pace quickened to include
climbs, glides, stalls, taxiing, take-offs, landings,

86

forced landings, and spins. Once the instructor was
satisficd the student could safely fly the plane, the two
moved on to increasingly complicated maneuvers
180-degree turns, 360-degree turns, cross-wind
landings, lazy cights, cights on pylons, loops, rolls,
strange ficld landings, and (almost every day) forced
landings. Making forced landings was only a little less
forgiving than parachuting out of an airplane. If it
wasn’t done right, there might not be another chance.
Primary training in the carly 1930s amounted to 61
flying hours, 31 hours of dual instruction, and 30
hours of solo time

When a flying cadet progressed to basic training,
he began fearning to fly all over again with a new



fl

Hangar 9 was 1
of 16 hangars
built at Brooks
in 1918. A 1920s
image of the
hangar is at
right. The center
photo shows the
hangar today.

Today, Hangar 9
houses the Museum
of Flight Medicine.
At right is one of the
many exhibits on
view at the museum,

63



more complex airplane. It
took about five hours of
dual instruction before the
instructor pilot cleared a
cadet to fly solo. One
cadet described the exper-
ience this way:

Gadgets, millions
of them --  alti-
meters, rate of
climb indicators,
bank indicators,
air pressure,
R.P.M. indicator,
fuel gauges, safcty
belt each
demanding atten-
Now the
take off, throttle
forward -- a
bounce, another
and now up, up--
just you and the
plane -- and
below well
below is the world
with all its earth-
bound mortals.
Down now — for
that landing. Cut
the motor--cstablish that glide--stabilizer up,
now a gliding tum and flaps--more flaps
Down steeply towards the ground--down--
down--back on that stick, back, back--a
bump and Randolph Field scttlos under
the wheels.

tion

Early on, the basic training program of instruction
provided 90 flying hours for the student pilots. By
1939 a cadet might spend 103 hours in the cockpit to
complete the course, but the changes reflected shifts in
emphasis rather than a substantive shift in training
philosophy. In the basic phase, cadets tried to improve
their elementary flying skills. Also, they were
introduced to some of the more complex facets of
flying to include cross-country flying, instrument
flying, formation flying, and night flying,

An apprehensive but candid cadet had this to say
about night flying:

87

As is still true today, not enough operational aircraft were available to
provide all the training needed. In the 1930s and 1940s, instructors used the
Link Trainer to provide instrument training.

You drop swiftly into the abyss below. Now
you are at right angles to the field. You have
cut your gun, sct the stabilizer, and the
critical moment is approaching. . . . Here
comes the light! The ground tilts bencath
Every nerve in your body is on end. ‘Ease it
back, case it back slowly,’ you hear on the car
phones and it rings in your mind. The ship is
ready to touch now. Shc is settling, settling,
settling. ... How high are you! After what
feels like an eternity you hit, bounce slightly,
and roll out of the light into the dark beyond.

Upon completing four months of primary training
and four months of basic training at Randolph, cadets
proceeded to Kelly Field where they completed the
program with four months of advanced training in the
type of aircraft they might expect to fly once they
earned their commission and their wings. Thus, cadets
spent their last four months recciving specialized



During the war, large numbers of women joined the Kelly work force, and it
wasn’t long before someone nicknamed them “Kelly Katies.”

Antonio depot skyrocketed from 913 in January 1939
to over 20,000. One unforeseen development amid this
expansion was a tremendous increase in the number of
women employed at the depot, a situation mirrored all
over the country as “Rosie the Riveter” became a
national icon, But with
Kelly Field’s flight train-
ing program straining to
accommodate the wartime
flood of aviation cadets
and Dunean Field expand-
ing its own maintenance,
overhaul, and resulting
flight testing operations,
the sky over the adjoining
fields became dangerously
crowded, and it was
becoming almost impos-
sible for the depot to mect
its obligations

By late 1942, Kelly
Field no longer occupied
the paramount place in
flight training it held

During World War II,

during the lean interwar
years. Other advanced
flying bases existed
around the country, and it
was clearly casicr to
rclocate flying training to
one of these bases than to
move a major depot in
wartime. Thus, in January
1943 the various involved
headquarters concurred in
the consolidation of Kelly
and Duncan Fields into a
single facility. The merger
did not take place immed-
rately, but over the next
three months flying
training slowly wound
& down along the old Kelly

“S@ai —sflightline. As cadets and
a training aircraft moved
out, in moved depot
activitics. There was some
debate during this period
over which name the ficld
would have, but sentiment

and tradition persuaded officials to keep the name
Kelly Field.

Officially, the two fields merged, or more
accurately reunited, on April 21, 1943, but this merely

Kelly workers repaired aircraft like the P-51s (above).

32


Stinson Field

Among the first four flyers to land at the newly
cleared field in April 1917 was a young San
Antonian named Eddie Stinson. The Stinsons were
already famous for their pioneering efforts in
aviation, and Eddie himself was, for all his skill,
actually less well known than his sisters, Katherine
and Marjorie.

Katherine was 21 when she first solocd in July
1912, becoming the fourth American woman to
gain a pilot’s license from the Federation
Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). The following
April she and her mother formed the Stinson
Aviation Company, and Katherine began touring
with her Wright B Flyer. In 1913 the family moved
to San Antonio, and somehow Katherine got
permission to use Foulois’ former sheds at Fort
Sam Houston to store her plane. She also got
permission to use the parade ground as a landing
field. A year later her 19-year-old sister, Majorie,
became the ninth woman to earn an FAI certificate,

The flying sisters earned money touring and
teaching. In May 1915, Katherine also became the
first woman to fly the mail in Texas. During this
time, their mechanic was their brother, Eddie.
Despite his eagerness to fly with them, neither
would teach him; perhaps because he had a
reputation for drinking. But during 1915, Eddic
scraped up enough money to pay for lessons at the
Wright School in Dayton, Ohio.

He joined his sisters in San Antonio in the fall,
just about the time the Ist Aero Squadron arrived
from Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Evicted from Fort Sam
Houston, the family leased a 750-acre tract south
of the city and built their own field.

With World War I underway, the Stinsons
began training Canadian pilots at their ficld.
During 1916, Katherine toured western Canada,
Japan, and China, while Marjoric handled the
instruction. Eddie helped teach acrobatics to pilots
of the Ist Aero Squadron. Allegedly, it was during
this period that he discovered, apparently by
accident, the secret of escaping from a spin.
Impressed, Benny Foulois was said to have

demanded that Eddie teach the technique to all his
pilots. When Kelly Ficld opened in April 1917,
Eddie Stinson was a natural choice to lead the
three Amy pilots to the new field,

Diagnosed as tubercular by an Army doctor,
Eddie could not get a commission. Near the end of
1917, while serving as a civilian instructor at
Kelly, his frustration triggered a monumental
bender. Eddie awoke to find himself a private in
the Army. Hustled back to Kelly by irate officers,
he was soon back at work as an instructor. When
Amny officials denied his request to go overseas,
Stinson disappeared for a week to drink away his
disappointment. His instructor’s skills were
desperately needed, but the Army did not want to
have a soldier who periodically went AWOL
[absent without leave], nor were senior officers
happy at having a private instruct officers,
especially a private with Eddie’s wild reputation
So, he was quietly discharged and hired again as a
civilian. For all his bad habits, Stinson was a
superlative flyer. His aerial demonstrations left
other pilots awed. For the rest of the war, he
remained at Kelly as a civilian instructor.

Katherine Stinson stopped flying in 1918
Exhausted by her touring schedule, she contracted
tuberculosis. It took her six years to recover from
the illness. Even so, she never flew again as a pilot.
In 1928 Katherine married. She died in 1977 at the
age of 86

After the war, Marjorie took up barnstorming.
However, by 1930 she too had given up flying, She
died in 1975 at the age of 79.

Eddie went on to found the Stinson Aircraft
Corporation in Detroit, Michigan. He was a
leading figure in aviation during the 1920s. On
January 25, 1932, he was fatally injured when he
crash-landed on a Chicago golf course while
demonstrating one of his planes to a customer.

Today Stinson Ficld operates as a municipal
airport, a fitting memorial for a remarkable flying
family,



In this mock battle,
aircraft painted with the
yu iron cross represent the
German Air Force.

|

On November 30, 1918,
thousands came to watch
i an American-German
sham battle at Brooks. It
was the first demonstra-
tion of joint coordination
of air power with other
branches of the Army.

Parker, The tubes enabled instructor and student to
communicate with one another while in the air. Up to
that time, an instructor and student could only
H communicate via some very simple hand signals while
airbome and could not discuss the student's
performance until they had landed. The British
experience indicated that the use of this new system
had an immediate and positive impact on the success
of flight instruction

As introduced at Brooks Ficld, the Gosport
method had four main components. Mast obvious was
that it permitted communication between instructor
and student at all times by means of a speaking tube.
A corollary of that
i fact was it allowed
the instructor to Two aviators display the Gosport

correct mistakes in system which allowed the instruc-
the air when they tor pilot to talk with the student
were made. Sig- during pilot training in open cock-
nificantly, the pits.

Gosport method

47


Flying Training at Kelly, 1917-1943

On November 4, 1916, Benjamin Foulois, now a
major, stepped off the train at the San Antonio station.
His orders, given verbally by the new head of the
Aviation Scction of the Signal Corps, Colonel George
Squier, were to find a suitable site for the construction
of a new flying field. Foulois was not, he later said,
instructed to necessarily locate that field near San
Antonio. He simply could not conceive of locating it
anyplace else.

1st Aero Squadron

Foulois was certainly no stranger to the area. His
carly efforts to learn to fly in “Old Number 1” were
widely reported in the Jocal papers. More recently, in
the fall of 1915, his Ist Aero Squadron made the
fort’s Remount Depot its home. When on March 9,
1916, the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa raided
Columbus, New Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson
tesponded by ordering a “Punitive Expedition” under
Brigadier General John J. Pershing to go into Mexico
and either hunt down Villa or break up his band to
prevent any further border raids. Included in the
10,000 men Pershing took with him into Mexico was
the Ist Aero Squadron, which left San Antonio almost
at once to take up temporary quarters at Columbus
and later at various locations in Mexico.

This was the first field test of American military
aviation, and it was not a success. Hampered by
underpowered engines in the thin air over the
mountains of northern Mexico, only two of the
original JN-2 aircraft remained operational after a
month, and both of these were condemned and
destroyed as unserviceable upon their retum to
Columbus. With European powers putting ever
greater numbers of vastly superior aircraft into the
skics over the trenches, it was clear to American
aviators that somcthing must be done quickly to
improve and expand American military air strength. In
August 1916, Congress appropriated the unhcard of
sum of $13 million for military aeronautics, and
Colonel Squicr focused the efforts of his small staff on
the formation of five additional squadrons, the
acquisition of more powerful aircraft, and the creation
of new, larger training facilities. Foulois, the most
experienced flying officcr in the Army, was the

obvious choice to survey potential sites and choose
one to be the locus of American military aviation.

Opening the New Field

He wasted no time. Arguing that the former
Remount Depot site at Fort Sam Houston was too
small to handle aircraft with more powerful engines,
he ranged over the local area and found a potentially
suitable site within nine days. The site he fixed on was
a triangular tract of approximately 700 acres, adjacent
to the tracks of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad on its
cast side, bounded by Leon Creek to the west and
south, and by the Frio City road on the north. The site
had the advantage of being flat with good road and
rail access. It also had an artesian well for water, an
important consideration.

On November 21, returning through San Antonio
after an inspection tour of posts in the Southern
Department, Brigadier General George Scriven, the
Amny’s Chief Signal Officer, visited this site with
Foulois. Scriven verbally authorized Foulois to
proceed with obtaining lease agreements from the
local landowners. Almost immediately, Foulois hit a
snag. He had no difficulty obtaining the agreements,
but the aviation appropriation did not include specific
provision for using the money to acquire land, aside
from an experimental station which would become
Langley Ficld, Virginia. With Texas Senator Morris
Sheppard spearheading the effort to correct this
oversight, Congress revised the original bill in late
December, and in January 1917, the War Department
authorized payment for a one-year lease. At the same
time, the new 3d Acro Squadron rapidly took shape at
Fort Sam Houston

The men of the 3d Acro Squadron joined local
civilian crews in clearing and smoothing the land. By
March 1917, permanent partics remaincd on the site
to guard the growing stockpiles of equipment and
material. A local builder, Ernest Koemer, won a con-
tract to erect the first concrete and steel hangars, and
construction began on March 27, These hangars were
actually modified railroad siding buildings, similar to
a pair of hangars at Fort Sam Houston’s Remount
Depot. They were still no more than concrete


Once again the base and the city marshaled their
energies to “Keep Kelly Open,” but this time the
arguments of civic and military leaders, as well as the
passion of the Kelly workforce and local community,
fell short. By a vote of six to two, the commission
decided to recommend the San Antonio Air Logistics
Center for closure and realign Kelly with adjoining
Lackland Air Force Base. This became effective on
July 13, 2001. In an attempt to protect Air Force
readiness and save as many local jobs as possible, the
Defense Department began advocating a new concept
called privatization in place. The idea was to turn
over the center’s depot maintenance workload to
private conractors who would hire former Kelly
workers to perform the work in former Kelly
facilities. Center personnel face many challenges in
the next six years as they turn this concept into
reality.

With the decision to close the ALC, center and
city officials worked closely to protect Air Force
readiness while lessening the impact losing the city's
largest employer would have on the San Antonio

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community. Some of Kelly's missions realigned to
the remaining ALCs and other locations; however,
most interest centered on its largest depot mainte-
nance workloads, which the Air Force offered for
public/private competition. On 4 September 1997,
Warner Robins ALC, Robins AFB, Georgia, learned
it had won the C-5 depot maintenance contract; and
on 12 February 1999, Kelly's propulsion workload
went to the Oklahoma City ALC, Tinker AFB,
Oklahoma, and its commercial partner Lockheed
Martin.

Meanwhile San Antonio officials determined on
a proactive strategy to redevelop the base. Very
quickly, the city's redevelopment organization signed
leases with commercial firms for Kelly property,
firms like Boeing Aircraft and Lockheed Martin.
These redevelopment activities and others have
brought some 5,000 jobs to Kelly. In 2001 portions
of Kelly, primarily the airfield and areas to its west,
would realign to Lackland AFB. The area of Kelly
transferred would be called the Kelly Field Annex,
and the airfield would be known as Kelly Field.

Massive displays of public support greeted Base Realignment and Closure Commission members in June
1995, but in the end, even that could not save the San Antonio Air Logistics Center.


List of I!lustrations

T-33 94
7-34 94
T-37, T-41, and T-38 at Randolph. 95
T-39 96
C-47 96
T-43A navigator trainer. 98
THA ... ve 98
The joint primary aircraft training system or JPATS 99
T-3A enhanced flight screener... eee 99
Main gate at Lackland 102-103
Brigadier General Frank D. Lacklan: 104
Officer Training School graduates celebrate their commissioning, 106
In the early 1950s, recruits poured onto Lackland Air Force Base 107
Train station.............. 107
Basic training (collage). 108-109
English language training. Hid

M17



Lucky Lindy

Perhaps the most vivid cxample, certainly the best
known to the general public, of the kind of young man
who sought Army flight training in the 1920s was
Charles Lindbergh. Minnesota-bom, Lindbergh was
not a typical cadet. He knew how to fly even before
beginning training at Brooks Field, and in fact flew
into San Antonio in his own plane (which he kept at
the city’s Stinson Field while going through training.)
Yet, even with this expericnce, or perhaps because of
it, Lindbergh still found the Air Service course
difficult and demanding. He had to uniearn many bad
habits formed during his ficld-hopping and bam-
storming days, but by applying himself he avoided the
ignominy of failing and became one of just 33 of the
original 104 cadets in his class to complete the first
half of training in September 1924

Even before entering the Amy flight training
program, Lindbergh had a reputation as a lucky pilot,
escaping injury despite several rough landings and
crashes. That reputation gained further embellishment
during the advanced course. On March 6, 1925, only
nine days before graduation and commissioning, he
was part of a flight of SE-Ss (American-built versions
of the World War 1 British single-seat fighter) prac-
ticing acrial gunnery and tactics near Galveston.
Lindbergh’s section included Cadet Philip Love and
Lieutenant C.D. McAllister. When Cadet Love made
a mock attack on one of the other planes, Lindbergh
and McAllister dove with him to confirm the kill, but
as they pulled up, the two SE-5s collided with, as
Lindbergh reported, “a slight jolt followed by a
crash.”

Incredibly, neither man was hurt, and both jumped
from their tangled aircraft moments later. Lindbergh
lost the ripcord to his parachute, his goggles, and a
vest-pocket camera. The other planes scattered
immediately after the collision, as pieces of wood and
fabric were flung into the air, but they retumed at the
sight of the two parachutes, circled briefly, then
straggled back to Kelly Field. Lindbergh and
McAllister landed safely and were soon back in the air
aboard a pair of new SE-5s. This was not Lindbergh’s
first parachute descent, having jumped during several
exhibitions in his carlier carcer, but this time it was
not by choice. He and McAllister thus became the
twelfth and thirteenth members of the local Caterpillar
Club, an honor bestowed only upon Army and Navy

20

“Lone Eagle” Charles Lindbergh is perhaps the
best known graduate of Kelly Field’s advanced
flying school.

pilots who successfully “took to the silk” after trouble
in the air. But it was not the incident itself that added
to his reputation for luck, it was the fact that this was
the first class to be issued parachutes

Two years after finishing his aviation training at
Kelly Field, Lindbergh emerged as a national hero
when he became the first man to fly solo across the
Atlantic. Since he flew as a civilian, and made a point
of coming down the gangplank of the ship that
brought him home in a civilian suit, the fact that he
was a captain in the Air Reserve when he made the
flight remains little known today.

American Aviators

If Charles Lindbergh is the most famous graduate
of the Kelly advanced flying school, he was only onc
of many Kelly flyers who would shape the future of
American military aviation. Some of these men were
alrcady experienced flyers when they became
connected to Kelly. Carl Spaatz, for cxample, learned
to fly at San Diego and as a captain piloted one of the
first four planes to land at Kelly in April 1917, After
World War I, Spaatz bricfly commanded the field he
helped inaugurate. After commanding United States



crash. “This time,” reported the apparently unshaken
flyer, “I kept my nose down and came out O.K,”

The standard basic and primary training aircraft
at fields in the United States during World War I was
the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. This was an improved version
of the same plane taken into Mexico by the Ist Aero
Squadron in 1916. A standard two-seat biplane, with
its two cockpits in tandem, the JN-4 had a wingspan
of just over 43 and a half feet and an overall length of
a little over 27 feet. The power plant of most JN-4
models was a 90-horsepower OX-5 engine, which
gave the plane a top speed around 80 miles an hour.
The JN-4H version, along with an improved JN-6,
used a 150-horsepower Hispano A engine manufac-
tured by Wright-Martin, although the top speed of
these heavier aircraft was not much higher. If some-
times unforgiving, the Jenny inspired a great deal of
affection among pilots, many of whom acquired
surplus JN-4s for stunting and barnstorming after the
war. From a manufacturing standpoint, the JN-4 was
the first successful, mass-produced aircraft in the
United States, and one estimate suggests that a million
men learned to fly at the controls of a Jenny.

Serving as an instructor undcr these conditions
could be nerve-wracking. Lieutenant John Loeblein
remembered instructors using the cockpit fire
extinguisher to knock out panicked students who
would not release the controls. In a similar vein,
M. Gould Beard recalled struggling with his instructor
over the stick while practicing spin recovery. Beard
was worried that his instructor, Licutenant John St.
John, thought he had “frozen” at the controls and
would ground him. Apparently, this was not the case.
Beard was soon flying again and soloed shortly
afterward, but Lieutenant St. John “never went up
with me again.”

The Impact of the Armistice

By the end of 1917, despite all the chaos of
beginning a training program from scratch, aviation
cadets at Kelly had accumulated almost 6,000 flying
hours. This total increased steadily during early 1918
as the staff and mstructors at the ficld grew morc
familiar and comfortable with the organizational
structure and the training program. In February
student flyers logged 9,500 hours in the air, and they
accumulated another 12,000 hours in March. On
March 18, 1918 alone, with over 100 aircraft

available at the ficld, cadets were in the air a
cumulative total of 1,033 hours. The sky over the ficld
was very crowded during daylight.

From this peak, though, the number of cadets in
training and the number of flying hours began a slow
but steady decline. By August 1918 the number of
cadets had dropped below 300 at Kelly for the first
time since December 1917, and in September Kelly
transferred its instructor training to newly constructed
Brooks Field. Still, at the armistice on November 11,
1918, a total of 1,459 pilots had graduated from flight
training, and 298 instructors had completed the
advanced course. Many others were still in the
training program when the war ended, and one
recalled that there was little rejoicing at the news that
now they would not get the chance to prove
themselves as aviators in Cadet Beard
recalled that

combat

There was dead silence for about 30 seconds,
and then the whole barracks sat up and started
cursing at the floor, damning the Germans for
having lain down on the job before they had a
chance to get over there and prove their merit
as aviators

Training nevertheless continued. Ten aviation cadets
won their wings and commissions the day after the
armistice.

Despite the overwhelming public demand for
immediate demobilization, the Air Service {created out
of the Aviation Scction in 1918) continued to seek at
least a handful of potential trainees. Air shows
encouraged continued enlistment, without great
success, and at one point the service announced it
would fly prospective pilots from their homes to the
nearcst training ficld. Most of this effort was mcant to
spur continued contributions to the final “Victory
Loan” campaigns, but clearly, too, the Air Service
saw a need for a steady trickle of recruits into the
flying training program, even as the number of actual
flying units shrank abruptly.

Aerial Border Patrol

By carly 1919 only four pursuit, four
bombardment, a handful of observation, and a few
balloon squadrons were ail that remained of the aerial
armada rushed into being during the war. All the


In April 1911, the three officers at North Island
received orders to report to Fort Sam Houston. Their
arrival prompted the local signal officer, Major
George Squier, to set up a provisional aero company
This ad hoc organization was to train additional local

Among students at the Glenn Curtiss school at North Island in

1911 was Lieutenant George E.M. Kelly (far left).

officers as pilots and continue experiments in air-
ground cooperation to explore the usefulness of the
airplane as a military tool. Foulois took on the task of
developing the first set of provisional regulations for
the operation of Army aircrafi, along with the first set
of flying safety rules. At almost the
same time, the first of the new
airplanes, a Curtiss Type IV
military pusher, arrived in San
Antonio.

Although the Wright brothers
would end up suing Curtiss
for patent infringement, triggering
a long running legal feud, there
were several important differences
between their machine and the
plane built by the Californian.
Instead of wing-warping to provide

harness arrangement. A wheel on a center post
controlled clevators and the rudder. Moreover, unlike
the two-place Wright machine, the Curtiss was a
single-seater. A pilot trained on the Wright model had
to leam an entirely new system to fly the Curtiss, and
he had to do it on his own. Eager to show
what they could do, and claiming some
familiarity with the Curtiss system, the
three new arrivals promptly began flying
the new plane at Fort Sam Houston. As an
observer, Foulois found their enthusiastic
acnial efforts frightening. “They did many
of the things I had learned not to do,” he
recalled, “and practiced their mistakes time
and time again.” At one point Lieutenant
Walker almost crashed, stalling a few feet
off the ground during an ill-advised tam at
low speed. He banged the front fork of the
Curtiss tricycle landing gear hard into the
ground, thoroughly scaring himself. Shortly
thereafter, Walker askcd to be relicved from
flying. Licutenant Beck fared little better.
Flying too low and far too slow, he stalled
during a landing attempt, smashed the
aircraft into the ground, and knocked
himself out. When he regained conscious-
ness, Beck found himsclf wandering atm-
tessly in the mesquite shrub with the control
whcel in his hands.

Tragedy Strikes

Foulois observed the repair work keenly, and later
said he was not happy with what he saw. In particular,

- ee

stability and allow turns, the
Curtiss machine used ailerons
linked to the pilot by a shoulder

Lieutenant Kelly is flying this Curtiss pusher. He was at the controls
of a similar aircraft at the time of his fatal crash.


In late 1950 and early
1951, thousands of
young recruits poured
into Lackland on a
daily basis (right). The
only way the base
could house them was
by setting up a tent
city (above).

mid-1966, the military training center regularly
handled recruit populations of 20,000 and more, while
manned and equipped for 17,770 basic trainees. Even
though the center split training shifts, reduced the
course length from 30 to 24 days, and increased flight
size, some recruits still had to live in tents.

Lackland’s technical training mission grew out of
the Korean War. During the war, the 3700th
Instructor Squadron had periodically taught a one-

107

week training course for recruiters. This unit not only
trained instructors and recruiters but also taught
several technical subjects, including carcer counseling
and band.

Lackland gained its first permanent technical
training responsibility in May 1954, when the Officer
Candidate School implemented the USAF Recruiting
Course. The base received its first technical training
unit on November 20, 1956, when the 3275th



Consolidations, War, and New Challenges

The 1990s ushered in a whole new era. For
several ycars the Department of Defense had been
looking for better, leaner, and smarter cost-saving
ways to do business. However, this process was
intensified with the unexpected collapse of
communism in Eastem Europe and the demise of the
Russian empire. Americans expected a peace
dividend--a reduction in defense spending. Downsizing
became the buzz word, but Brooks continued to grow.

In 1991 four of its labs--the Air Force Human
Resources Laboratory, the Air Force Drug Testing
Laboratory, the Harry G. Armstrong Aerospace
Medical Research Laboratory, and the Air Force
Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory,
as well as the laboratory function of the USAF School
of Aerospace Medicine-combined to became the
Armstrong Laboratory, one of four super laboratories
in the Air Force.

Also, the Air Force Center for Environmental
Excellence was formed and located at Brooks. This
organization has the monu-
mental task of restoring
closing installations to
their original state and of
ensuring that future instal-
lations are environmentally
safe.

Operation Desert Storm

On August 2, {990,
troops from Iraq invaded
neighboring Kuwait in an
audacious attempt to
annex the oil rich country,
The United States and a
coalition of 27 other
countrics sent in troops
that eventually numbered
685,000. When diplomacy

The Brooks war effort was expressed in several
ways. A major Air Force goal during Desert Storm
was to minimize noncombatant casualties. The US
Central Command tasked the Human Systems
Division to estimate the possible noncombatant
casualties following attacks on certain military
targets. Along with its contractor, Brooks personnel
developed a study of specific weapons, tactics,
delivery platforms, rules of cngagement, and
casualties

The USAF School of Aerospace Medicine's
Department of Aerospace Nursing made significant
contributions by recognizing problems of training
prior to actual war involvement. Brooks sent two
groups of flight surgeons and one decontamination
team to provide medical support in the Middle East
conflict. Additionally, a sccurity police team was
dispatched along with two personnel from the Occu-
pational and Environmental Health Directorate of the
Armstrong Laboratory. Brooks was prepared to aid
the war effort with a Multi-Man Intermittent Cooling
System, various aspects of chemical warfare defense
protection, lascr cye protection, pilot fatigue studics,
and other related
needs of personnel
in combat.

Desert Storm
gave the Air Force
the opportunity to
take technology off
the shelf, rash it into
production, and pro-
vide for the immed-
jate needs of troops
in Saudi Arabia.
The Air Force had a
need, and Brooks
responded.

Future Challenges

failed, action began on
January 16, 1991. The war
was over the following
month but not before the
vast superiority of USAF
technology was displayed
to the world

Desert

During Operation
Brooks sent two groups of flight surgeons and one
decontamination team to provide medica support in
this Middle East conflict. Additionally, a security
police team, shown here on deployment day, also
deployed in support of Desert Storm.

Shield/Desert Storm,

70

Consolidations
continued in 1992
with the merging of
the Air
Systems Command
and the Air Force
Logistics Command

Force


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training became painfully evident. Yct, despite that
humbling experience, progress was slow until the
demands of World War I added both urgency and
increased funding. Even so, the introduction of even
minimal instrument instruction at the advanced flying
schoo! marked the first time such a course was
included in the curriculum of any military flying
school worldwide.

Aircraft of the late 1920s and 1930s were sturdicr
than their predecessors, constructed of stronger
materials to designs that reflected ever greater
understanding of the principles of flight, and equipped
with more powerful and reliable engines. Yet, even as
passenger travel on commercial airlines became more
common, flying remained a dangerous business. This
was particularly truc when that flying took place
under less than ideal conditions of worsening weather
and poor visibility. Cadets at the advanced flying
school often flew at night or in uncertain weather,
times when airlincs with passenger safety to consider
would routinely ground their aircraft. They were
“military fliers” (in Beirne Lay’s phrase), after all,
and they ultimately flew for a different purpose than
an airline

Between 1922 and mid-1937, of the 2,051 cadets
who entered training at the advanced flying school, 39
died in aircraft accidents. The memoirs and
reminiscences of cadets from this period invariably
mention at some point accidents and the death of a
classmate in training. In many ways, the tubular stecl-
framed aircraft of the 1930s were less forgiving in a
crash than earlicr aircraft of wood and fabric. Of
course, not every accident was fatal. Beirne Lay
recalled a two-week period in which there was some
sort of incident every day, but only one resulted in the
cadet class solemnly parading to a mortuary chapel.
Night flying multiplied the hazards. On one relatively
short 1933 flight from Fredericksburg, Texas, to
Kelly, Cadet Charles Rogers died when he crashed in
fog shortly after take off. A classmate, Lawrcnce
Fulwider, was tuckicr. Lost in the same fog and his
gas gauge needle resting on empty, Fulwider
climbed to 2,000 fect and bailed out. He was
surprised to hit the ground only moments after
his chute opencd, and with the sunrise he was
even more stunned to realize that he had landed
in a shallow valley between peaks that rose well
over his altitude when he jumped. They loved to
fly, but such things drove home the lesson of just

25

how dangerous this seemingly glamorous pro-
fession could be, As one cadet noted, “This was no
kids game.” Nor was it something on which they could
afford to brood. The class buricd Cadet Rogers, and
the following day they went on with their work:

Graduation was the culmination, the time when
aviation cadets (now known as flying cadets) gained
their wings and officially became pilots. The
ceremonies marking the occasion were intpressive
The professionally printed invitations to family and
friends often included photographs of the ficld, and the
day before the big event each class gathered for a
formal group portrait. Cadets marked the time by
another milestone as well: the purchase of their first
regulation uniform. Blouse, shirt, breeches, cap, and
above, all boots were all custom tailored and fitted.
Along with the regulation Sam Browne belt, sword,
and other insignia, the total cost might run as high as
$200, a hefty expense when a cadet’s monthly pay
was $75 and that of an active duty second lieutenant
only $207. Most saved for the outlay by having the
Air Corps deduct $20 cach month from their pay.

Although sometimes a last minute violation could
keep a man from graduating, this was rare. By this
time, the weeding out process was complete. On
graduation morning, all the cadets assembled for the
single most impressive moment of their carcers to
date, the fly-by pass-in-review. Forming up some
distance away from the ficld, cach section thundered
by the reviewing stand in tight formation, bombers
first, followed by the pursuit, attack, and observation
sections, An hour later, spotless in new uniforms, with
brass shining, the class sat through an address by the
Chief of the Air Corps. Then, one at a time, they came
forward to receive their wings and, in most cascs,
commissions as well, With budgets tight, only a lucky
or particularly skilled handful would go on to serve
for any time on active duty. Most found themselves in
the relative obscurity of the reserve. But even there
they could fly.

Changes at School in the 1930s

The Air Corps struggled during most of the
decade of the 1930s to cope with depression-cra
budgets. In the middle of the decade, the provisional
General Headquarters Air Force (known as GHQ Air
Force) became permanent. It controlled all Air Corps



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i

Army training center at Leon Springs, Texas, averted
a potential crisis in providing supervision for this
number of men.

Camp Life at Kelly Field

The confusion at Kelly Field

genial.” Licutenant John Loeblein, who served as a
maintenance officer at Kelly, remembered the excite-
ment of the weekly dances held at the Officers’ Club
on Kelly Number 2. “Many of the squadrons on the
ficld had their own orchestras,” he recalled. “And,
belicve me, they were good.” The officers’ dance was

during the first harried months of
Air Service expansion was similar
to that at camps all across the
country. Nevertheless, for the
thousands of young men who
arrived during those carly days, the
experience was a shock. “Do you
remember,” rhetorically asked one
of the writers of a Kelly Field
wartime yearbook, “arriving at
Kelly Ficld after withstanding a
long, hard trip, when food had
given out 36 hours carly, with great
anticipation of becoming a great
aviator and of making fame by
bombing old Hun “Bill’s” patace--
finding yourself lined up in front of
a row of tents, your feet in black
mud and the wind blowing a gale,
trying to obey the orders -- ‘prepare
for inspection’?” For much of the

TEXAS SLUMBER COMFORTS?

first fow months, the entire field

was covered constantly in blowing dust. For some
time food was cooked in the open, and the unfloored
tents had no stoves. Cold water baths were all that
existed for most men, and many of those were entirely
open

In 1917 San Antonio was still a small town, filled
with ever present reminders of its recent frontier past
Prospective pilot S. E. Elliott recalled it as a “roaring,
wild west town” filled with soldiers with money to
spend and plenty of local citizens willing to help them
spend it. “San Antonio,” he wrote, “scemed to abound
in saloons that were decorated with extremely long
cow horns on the walls, and with glass enclosed,
realistically prescrved habitants of the state, including
coiled rattlesnakes and hairy tarantulas, to grect the
visitor’s startled eye from many nooks and corners.”
Encouraged by local patrons, the youthful soldiers
discovered that after more than a few toasts to the
heroes of Texas, to “the beautiful women of Texas
and, in consideration of us foreigners, one to President
Wilson, even the faces of the tarantulas scemed a bit

always on Friday night, and the enlisted men held their
dances on Saturday evening. Only one squadron at a
time could hold a dance, and that squadron provided
the musicians. “It was also understood,” said
Loeblein, “that officers would not hang around at the
enlisted men’s dances and vice versa.” The dances
were the supreme social event of the week, and dozens
of local girls attended, cach accompanied by
chaperones. While soldicrs going into town could
experience a rowdier time, social activitics on the ficld
were tightly monitored. Still, Loeblein remembered
that the “moonlight dances were just out of this
world.”

Aside from visiting the saloons of San Antonio or
participating in a weekly dance, soldiers at Kelly
could, time permitting, make use of other recreational
facilitics. The Young Men’s Christian Association ran
a reading room, for example, and sponsored a number
of theatrical productions, Out of this effort emerged a
traveling troupe called the Kelly Field Players, which
toured northern Texas and southern Oklahoma for


numbers. Neither was a truly satisfactory substitute
for the frontline aircraft in use (no really good twin-
engine trainer appeared until modified B-25s were
available in 1944), and the first class to make use of
them, Class 42-K, was, ironically, the last flying
training class at Kelly.

To speed production of pilots, officials shortened
the advanced training program from 12 to 10 and then
to 9 weeks and also began overlapping the induction
of new classes. In 1939 classes entered every six
weeks. By 1940 they arrived every five weeks,
allowing nine classes to graduate on an annual basis
But, by 1942 the pace of instruction, coupled with a
shorter program, meant 11 graduating classes per
year, overworking instructors and placing enormous
stress on the training aircraft. Starting with Class
38-A, which began training in October 1937 and was
arguably the first class of the cxpansion period,
through Class 42-K, 7,123 cadets entered advanced
training at Kelly and 6,845 graduated, well over twice
the number graduated (2,771) from 1922 to 1938

Before prospective pilots could begin training, of
course, they had to be selected from among the even
larger number of applicants. The first tests to assist in
the identifying process were ready shortly after Pearl
Harbor. Similar test batterics to help select candidates
for bombardier and navigator training were rushed
into use at about the same time.

Officials planning expansion in the immediate pre-
war period expected primary flying schools to operate
four-week military orientation programs for aviation
recruits, but this proved unworkable. In 1941 each of
the three regional training centers established a
replacement training depot. That organized by the
Gulf Coast Training Center appeared at Kelly Field in
August. With facilities already limited, the advanced
flying school commander, Colonel Frank D. Lackland,
supported construction of new buildings im an area
west of the main Kelly flightlinc known as The Hill.

Most of the emphasis in what became a nine-weck
program at the replacement depot was on physical
conditioning and instruction in such fundamentals as
military courtesy. The test batteries put in place in late
1941 helped separate candidates for pilot training
from those better suited for navigator or bombardier
training. Inevitably, as the number of men entering
training grew, the classification process threatened to

30

overwhelm the basic training program. So, in 1942 the
War Department established a classification center to
handle this function. By June 1942, the various
programs for reception and classification at Kelly
Ficld became the separate San Antonio Aviation
Cadet Center, operated directly by the Gulf Coast
Training Center. (In 1948 this World War Il expedient
became Lackland Air Force Base.)

Instructor Pilots and Navigators

Finding cnough instructors to handle flying and
navigator training was a profound difficulty, and the
Army Air Forces never fully solved the problem.
Older reserve pilots found themselves back on duty
alongside ex-Navy fliers and newly-minted pilot
instructors. The Army offered direct commissions to
many civilian instructors if they successfully com-
pleted a brief course, with the caveat that they had to
meet existing physical standards. Over half could not,
so the Army tricd to entice them into the enlisted
reserve but with almost no success.

The Gulf Coast Training Center submitted a
proposal for a Central Instructors School in June
1942, and it activated at Kelly Field in August. Army
officers already rated as pilots went through a four-
week basic instructor’s course, Civilian pilots began
with a 20-day introductory course, basically
a transition course to military aircraft, followed by
either an clementary instructor course or a utility pilot
course.

The shortage of instructor and utility pilots had an
effect on the navigator training program, too. Demand
for navigators outran supply, particularly carly in the
war, not only because there was a shortage of skilled
navigation instructors but because someone had to fly
the planes they trained aboard. In July 1941, the
Barksdale Field navigation school moved from
Louisiana to Kelly, taking up residence in buildings
near the flightline and adding to base overcrowding
As soon as facilitics were available on The Hill, it
moved. Many of the first graduates became instructors
for contingents which followed, and the program
underwent a series of revisions to reflect combat
experience. A total of 607 men graduated from the
Kelly navigator program, before it moved to Hondo
Amy Air Field, 45 miles west of San Antonio, in
1942,


The T-6A Texan Il, the
JPATS aircraft, will
replace the T-37 and
serve as the primary
trainer for both the
Navy and the Air Force.

training system or JPATS. The third aircraft, to be
obtained after the turn of the century, would be a
replacement for the venerable T- 38 in the bomber-
fighter track. While the initial cadre of T-1A
instructor pilots at Reese had been trained at the
manufacturer’s site in Wichita, Kansas, those slated
to become T-1A instructors at Laughlin, Vance, and
Columbus would go through a standard pilot
instructor training course at Randolph as specialized
undergraduate pilot train-
ing was phased in later in
the decade.

Late in 1993, the wing
at Randolph gained yet
another mission. For
years Air Combat Com-
mand had run a course at
Holloman AFB, New
Mexico, using AT-38s to
prepare young pilots to
make the step up to
operational fighter air-
craft, When Headquarters
USAF decided that Air
Education and Training
Command (on | July
1993, Air Training Com-
mand changed its name)
should provide that train-
ing, Holloman’s AT-38s
went to three different

99

In 1994 the 12th Flying Training Wing g:

bases: Randolph and Sheppard AFBs in Texas, and
Columbus AFB, Mississippi. The 12th Flying
Training Wing received its allocation of ten AT-38s
in October and began the first Introduction to Fighter
Fundamentals course at Randolph on November 5,
1993.

The 12th Flying Training Wing acquired a new
aircraft for an old mission in February 1994, The

ained a new aircraft, the T-3A, for

its flight screening program. The T-3A replaced the T-41.



graduated from Goodfellow on September 8, 1945,
and plans were formulated to commence basic pilot
training at Randolph on February L, 1946.

That had to be postponed, however, when the
Amny Air Forces found itself desperately short of
personnel. In the rush to return to
normalcy at the end of the war, so many
enlisted maintenance personnel separated
from the service that it became necessary
first to reduce and then to freeze training
activities. On January 28, 1946, a board
recommended that all pilot training be
suspended. The next day Army Air Forces
Flying Training Command postponed the
graduation dates of all pilot classes for 7
1/2 weeks and announced it would accept
no more entries into pilot training until
March 26, 1946, which was subsequently
postponed until May. As a result, basic
training was practically nonexistent during
the first half of 1946. Randolph Field had
only one class in training during this
period, and that class had begun basic
pilot training at Perrin Field, Texas, in
October 1945 and transferred to Randolph
in March 1946. It graduated in May 1946,
28 students strong.

Randolph continued to focus on its
pilot training mission until the carly days
of the Korean War. It became an air force
base in January 1948, shortly after the Air
Force became a separate service in
September 1947, but little else changed in
the last half of the 1940s. The Air Force
did reshape its pilot training program in
March 1948, but the effects on Randolph
were hard to see. The base simply sub-
stituted a single cight-month-long basic
course for two separate four-month
phases--primary and basic Randolph con-
tinued to use the AT-6 Texan throughout
the basic course, and it continued to train
its own instructor pilots

Combat Crew Training

That all changed with the outbreak of the Korean
War in June 1950. In a matter of months, Randolph

Was once again in the B-29 training business. In
September 1950 Craig AFB, Alabama, took over
Randolph's pilot instructor training mission, as
Randolph geared up to provide combat crew training
for B-29 aircrews. As the Air Force adjusted its
production goals upward to 7,200 pilots a year,

For a short period of time in the 1950s, Randolph AFB
conducted training programs with the C-119 (top) and the
B-S7 (below).

Randolph continued to provide basic training for
student pilots. It was not until July 1951, as the Air
Force phased in nine new contract schools, that
Randolph was able to concentrate its attention on B-
29 training. By the time B-29 training ended at
Randolph in 1956, the base had trained over 21,500
crew members


several weeks with a musical show entitled “The
Follics Militaire.” The troupe included singers, acro-
bats, comics, mimics, musicians, and actors. Female
parts were played by young ladies from Mrs
Matlack’s Finishing School (chaperoned by Mrs
Matlack, of course). Kelly also had a glee club, hobby
clubs, and numerous athletic teams

Flight Training -- World War I

Instructors on Kelly Ficld Number 2 began
teaching the rudiments of flying to student pilots in
August 1917, but it was not until September that the
Flying Department actually came into existence to
supervise and control this training. Pilot instruction
itself was something of a novelty in the United States
during this period. Numerous schools existed to teach
flying, of course, but there was no standardized course
of instruction. Shortly after the United States entered
into the war, a board of officers visited Camp Borden
to examine the methods of the Royal Canadian Air
Force. Rather than spend time debating the pros and
cons of various systems, the Army simply adopted the
Canadian system of training.

Under this system, all prospective pilots began
their training as aviation cadets. Their road to the
cockpit began with cight weeks of ground instruction
at one of six schools set up in May 1917 at civilian
universities around the country. Two more schools
appeared later. Naturally, the quality of instruction
was uneven at first, but standards improved rapidly as
instructors grew more familiar with the material. The
eventual curriculum included 35 hours of instruction
on aero engines, 31 hours on observation aviation, 20
hours on signaling, 24 hours on gunnery and bombing,
21 hours on aircraft construction and theories of
flight, and 2 hours on meteorology. Prospective pilots
also got regular instruction in drill and ceremonies

By regulation, all young men accepted for pilot
training had to be 25 ycars-of-age or younger (a
Tequirement waived in some cases), preferably have
two or even three years of college or technical
training; and be athletic, robust, honest, and reliable.
Many were impatient with the ground school portion
of their training and were eager to get into airplanes as
quickly as they could. Following ground school,
successful candidates were given a rating of Junior
Military Aviator and then they went to flight school
for six to eight wecks. Commissioned after success-

fully completing this portion of the training program,
the cadets then went on to an advanced school for a
brief one-month course in a particular specialty--
pursuit, bombardment, or observation. New pilots
accumulated only about 90 flying hours before being
considered ready for the front, and many had less

Flight training proceeded in a scries of steps
called stages, beginning with the dual instruction
stage. With an instructor initially handling take-offs
and landings, the aviation cadets were coached
through increasingly difficult mancuvers. Normally, at
some point between four and ninc hours of this, the
instructor tumed the student loose to solo. This stage
might include up to 25 more flying hours, with some
additional dual instruction thrown in. The solo stage
was followed by cross-country and formation flying
and acrobatic instruction for another 25 hours or so.
During each stage, the cadet also continued to attend
ground classcs on various subjects such as navigation
and the proper conduct of officers.

Arrival of the First Cadets

On August 1, 1917, a group of 11 young men
assembled at Kelly Field prior to entering the School
of Military Acronautics at the University of Texas in
Austin. These young men were all prospective flying
cadets, and they became the fourth of 81 classes to
attend the Austin ground school before returning to
Kelly to eam their wings. The first three classes had
bypassed Kelly, going overscas for their flight
training.

As the group stood at the edge of the field, Major
Seth Cook approached, offering to take them up one at
a time for familiarization flights in his JN-4 Jenny. All
of them cagerly accepted, and the first chosen to fly
with Major Cook that day was John Ireland. Thus,

Ireland became the first cadet to go aloft from Kelly
Field.

Flying was risky in the early days. Four of|
Ircland’s classmates were killed in training. The first
was Cadet Sidney J. Brooks, a San Antonio native
who became Kelly’s first training fatality. Only 1 of|
the 11 made it overseas; Hugh Brewster shot down
two German planes in September 1918 while flying a
SPAD VIII with the 49th Pursuit Squadron



navigator track led to assignments in the C-130,
KC-135, and B-52; and the clectronic warfare track
led to assignments in the EF-11 1, B-1, F-15, RC-135,
and certain C-130 aircraft. In August 1993 the first
students moved from the core course into the
navigator and systems officer tracks; the electronic
warfare officer track would not have any

students until a new simulator for

electronic combat training was installed at

Randolph in the summer of [995

In May 1993 specialized under-
graduate pilot training came to Randolph
when Air Training Command activated a
squadron to provide pilot instructor
training for a new aircraft, the T-1A
Jayhawk. Specialized undergraduate pilot
training had been introduced at Reese
AFB, Texas, in July 1992 and was a dual-
track system designed to better prepare
student pilots to fly either fighter-bomber
or airlift-tanker aircraft. The plan called
for the acquisition of three aircraft as the
Air Force implemented specialized
undergraduate pilot training. The T-1A
was the first of thesc. With a jump seat
located between and just behind the
aircraft commander and co-pilot positions,

98

the T-IA had a unique cockpit configuration that
allowed students to train in a flight-deck environment
like they might find in airlift and tanker aircraft. Next
up would be a primary trainer to replace the aging
T-37. To be purchased in conjunction with the Navy,
aircraft

it was known as the joint primary

a ig:

In 1973 Air Training Command replaced its T-29 navigator
trainer with the T-43A, a military version of the Boeing 737.

The T-1A Jayhawk
came to Randolph in
1993. Since then, the
12th Flying Training
Wing has been training
T-1A instructors for the
command’s various fly-
ing training programs.


advanced flying school and Kelly Field of both aviation
cadet classification and preflight training.

The Adjutant General took action on June 26,
1942, when he directed that the Hill be separated from
Kelly Field and that it be operated as an independent
military installation designated as the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center. By then, the preflight school
and the station hospital had moved into just completed
facilities on the Hill cast of Military Road. The
classification center could not begin its move until
new facilities west of the road were ready for
occupancy in September.

The Gulf Coast Army Air Forces Training Center,
an intermediate higher headquarters, formally trans-
ferred the preflight school, the classification center, a
station hospital, an Air Force band, and several other
units to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center on
July 4, 1942. On the same day, Coloncl Michael F.
Davis set up and took command of the aviation cadet
center headquarters. The classification and preflight
establishments remained assigned to the Gulf Coast
Amny Air Forces Training Center, headquartered at
Randolph Ficld, while thcir commanders reported to
Colonel Davis

The physical plant of the San Antonio Aviation
Cadet Center did not take final shape until the summer
of 1943, when construction of facilitics finally caught
up with the need. By then, the station hospital had
joined the classification center and preflight school as
a major mission organization. It had taken on
significant medical training courses, in addition to its
primary function of servicing the installation.

Mission

With general mobilization following Pearl Harbor,
the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center grew rapidly.
Cadets of Class 42-F had begun training in November
1941 for a nation at peace; they graduated in late
December facing warfare. Instructors for that first
class had to devise the four-weck curriculum as they
taught it. The course taught military indoctrination
(36 hours), administrative indoctrination (23), aca-
demics (42), and physical conditioning (32). The
course gradually lengthened to 10 weeks as the war
progressed. The urgency for pilots decreased, and the
lessons Ieamed from combat found their way into the

curriculum. Approximately 90,000 candidates for
flying training passed through the preflight school
before the need diminished, and the War Department
ordered the school closed on April 30, 1944

The San Antonio Aviation Cadct Center
performed a varicty of other training missions late in
the war; among them were officer candidate training
for enlisted men, indoctrination for officers directly
commissioned, and preparation for officers to pursuc
advanced college courses. Within days after
announcing, on March 23, 1944, plans to disband the
preflight school, the War Department reversed itself
and added to the school’s mission: preparing Turkish
Air Force licutenants for undergraduate pilot training.
The school finally discontinued on June 30, 1945

With the end of preflight training, the San Antonio
Aviation Cadet Center's name was no longer appro-
priate. On July 1, 1945, the installation was redesig-
nated as the San Antonio District, Army Atr Forces
Personnel Distribution Command, signaling a new
mission; receiving vetcrans from the combat theaters
and cither reassigning or separating them. The base's
1,500-bed regional hospital played a large role,
tending to the rchabilitation and physical evaluation
necds of those arriving from wartime assignments.
With that task largely accomplished in early 1946, the
base became subject to the general demobilization

Instead of closing operations on the Hill, as
happened to most wartime training camps, the War
Department redesignated it as the Army Air Forces
Military Training Ccnter, on February 1, 1946, and
gave it the basic military training mission that had
been at Harlingen Field, Texas. As other boot camps
closed, the Army Air Forces intended to consolidate
all enlisted basic training on the Hill. Reinforcing the
military training center's indoctrination mission, the
Officer Candidate School also transferred here from
Maxwell Ficld, Alabama.

On November |, 1946, Air Training Command
redesignated the military training center as the
Indoctrination Division. Then on August 26, 1948,
Air Training Command added the newly organized
3700th Basic Training Wing to the Indoctrination
Division. However, Air Training Command discon-
tinued the wing less than a year later on April 22,
1949. A new wing, the 3700th Air Force Jndoc-
trination Wing, organized on October 28, 1949. At the



List of Hlustrations

Lieutenant Foulois...
Aerial view of Kelly Fiel
Captain Foulois and members of the Ist Aero Squadron (Punitive Expedition),
Foulois with Airplace Number 1
Lieutenant George E.M. Kelly as a student at North Island
Lieutenant Kelly flying a Curtiss pusher..............
Remount Depot (later, Dodd Field) at Fort Sam Houstor
A group of Jennies prepare to lift off...
At the main gate, visitors turned left to ‘Kelly ‘Number 1 or right to
Flight instructor with a group of flying cadet:
Ground instruction for flying cadets.
JN-4 Jennies lined the Kelly flightline in Worl
DH-4s assigned to the 1 Ith Aero $
DeHavilland DH-4s
Kelly Advanced Flying Schoo!
Kelly Number 2 flightline .....
Kelly Field operations office and tow:
Charles Lindbergh as a student at Kelly
Physical training at Kell
Dining hall at Kelly...
Slate gray uniform of the 1930s
Curtiss-Martin NBS-!
BT-9 .....
Cadets in Class 40-E.
Aerial view of Kelly in the 1940s,
AT-6 Texans...
Large supply warehouse constructed at Kelly in 1918
Kelly Katies
Aircraft repair at Kelly in World War Il
P-5 1s awaiting disposal at Kelly...
B-29 outdoor production line at Kelly.
XC-99, the largest transport plane built to
B-58 modification program at Kelly.
B-52 workload at Kelly...
Project Enhance Plus....
Operation Homecoming
C-5 modification program at Kefly
Kelly's engine workload
Space shuttle at Keily...
Operation Desert Storm reunion at Kel
Lasers used to develop prototypes.
Physical sciences laboratory.......
Public support to save Kelly from base clos
Aerial view of Brooks Ficld..............-4
Flying training at Brooks.
Cadet Brooks...
Major Henry C. Pratt, first commander of Broo!
American-German sham battle at Brooks Field
Gosport System ....
C-2 airship at Brooks.
C-2 moments after it crashed.
C-2 in flames



i

test confirmed the competence of aecro-
space medical research at Brooks.

Heavy _ interest space-related
programs continued through the 1960s,
However, there was some slowdown in
space cndeavors in the 1970s following the
tragic accident that took the lives of the
Apollo | astronauts. One of those indi-
viduals, Edward H. White II, was born in
San Antonio, Texas. His father, an Air
Force general, took him aloft in an old T-8
tramer when he was 12. No one ever
questioned that the boy would become a
flier. He graduated from the US Military
Academy at West Point in 1952, earned a
Master of Science degree in Acronautical
Engineering from the University of
Michigan in 1959, attended the Air Force
Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB in
California, and was selected as
astronaut by NASA in September 1962

in

an

His great moment came in 1965 when
he was selected to pilot the Gemini 4 space
mission, a four-day event that began on
June 3. This space mission circumnavi-
gated the carth 62 times. During the third
revolution, White opened the hatch while
his spacecraft was over the Indian Ocean
He stood in his seat and fired his zip gun
thruster and became the first American to
walk in space. Returning to carth after the
successful mission, White said: “I felt so good, I

didn't know whether to hop, skip, jump, or walk on my
hands."

Two years later astronauts Ed White, Roger
Chaffee, and Gus Grissom were preparing for a pre-
launch Apollo I mission on January 27, 1967, at Cape
Kennedy when an electrical spark ignited combustible
materials in the pure-oxygen atmosphere of their
cabin. The three perished in the fire

(In 1970 base officials dedicated the newly
renovated Hangar 9, one of sixteen original hangars
built at Brooks in 1918, as a memorial to Edward H.
White. The hangar is the oldest such facility in the Air
Force, and it houses the Muscum of Flight Medicine
and other related exhibits depicting the history of
Brooks Air Force Base.)

66

Edward H. White II lost his life in the Apollo J capsule fire on
January 27, 1967,

Even in the midst of this disaster, scientific
research continued. Studics were conducted on nuclear
survivability, decompression, sustained accelerative
forces, cardiographic, and other medical data for
NASA's space shuttle system, as well as for other
space research.

In the early 1980s, Brooks began its military
space biotechnology program, using the space shuttle
to conduct medical experiments in space. Researchers
at Brooks explored the need for crew protection and
performance enhancement for men in military space
systems. An operating location was established at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston to improve coor-
dination with NASA

Some of the first experiments involved tests in
visual functions, since astronauts had noted both





Tf a cadet sur-
vived the course at
Carlstrom or
March, he went on
to advanced train-
ing. Observation
students went to
school at Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, but no
schools existed for
pursuit or bom-
bardment training,
Advanced flying
students in those
specialties
received their
training with either
the Ist Pursuit or
Ist Bombardment
Groups, both at
Kelly Field until
1921. The flying
groups _ provided
instructors for both
ground classroom
and aerial training in tactics, aerial gunnery, and battle
maneuvers. At the same time, service with active units
gave them experience with supply, cnginccring,
operations, and Army paper work. Pursuit students
progressed from the Jennics to DH-4 two-seaters and
then to SE-5 fighters left over from the war
Bombardment students transitioncd to DH-4s, too,

squadrons in the 1920s.

with a handful moving on to Curtiss and Martin

NBS-2 series aircraft when those became available.
When the 3d Attack Group moved to Kelly Field in
1921, it provided a fourth specialty. Again, students
flew the DH-4, the all-purpose Air Service craft of the
early 1920s.

Between mid-1921 and mid-1922, Kelly com-
pletely restructured its trainmg program = in
conjunction with a total reorganization of the Air
Service. The primary flying school at March closed in
1921, and the Carlstrom school closed in carly 1922
At the same time, the Air Service opened a new
primary school--the only one--at Brooks Field and
concentrated ali advanced training at Kelly. For the
next two decades, San Antonio was the Army’s flying
training center, and every young man who succeeded
in becoming an Army aviator had finished his
schooling at Kelly

The American-built DeHavilland DH-4s, such as this one with the 104th Aero
Squadron on border patrol, were a mainstay of light bombing and observation

Advanced Flying Training in the 1920s

Primary training at Brooks Field began with the
traditional classroom instruction before progressing to
flying training in the still present JN-series two-
scaters. The flying cadet who survived this six-month
course became a Junior Airplane Pilot and then moved
a few miles west to Kelly for another six months
(initially cight months) of specialized training before
he could win his commission and wings

In 1922 Kelly set up an advanced flying school
under the aegis of the 10th School Group.




they had becn and their
new, albeit temporary
home. Many of the
buildings were older,
certainly not as nice as
those at just opened
Randolph. And, aside
from a brief period in
the carly 1930s under
Coloncl Henry B

Clagett, discipline was
less strict. The cadets
coming to Kelly
alrcady knew the
Tudiments of military
life and had some
experience in flying;
their task was now to
simply hone their skills
for a particular pur-
pose. Beirne Lay, Jr, a
1933 Kelly graduate,
captured the essence of
this in his popular
1937 book 1 Wanted
Wings (a memoir of his
training later made into
a motion picture). Lay
noted that up until they arrived at Kelly, he and his
fellow cadets had simply learned to fly. Now, he
realized, they would learn how to turn their airplanes
into weapons,

Typically cadets arose around 5:30 in the
morning. Some classes began the day a little earlier; in
many years, revcille came as late as 6:00 a.m. Flying
began carly, with cadets on the flightline by 7:00.
When the weather was good, they might fly until
11:00, with lunch around 11:40. Most of the early
aftemoon was spent in ground school, and organized
athletics took the rest. Supper was served around
5.30, and many evenings cadets would return to the
flightline for more flying. They normally had their
weekends and Wednesday afternoons off.

Discipline was looser than during their primary
training period, but it was not ignored. A demerit
system similar to that used at the primary schools was
also used by the staff at Kelly. Cadets guilty of
infractions found themselves confined to barracks or
writing essays on the error of their ways. One former

22

Physical training took up a portion of each afternoon.

cadet remembered writing a 1,000 word treatise on
“Airdrome Discipline” after being charged (falsely,
he claimed) of taking off late for a cross-country
flight.

But these occasional restrictions did not stop the
cadets from enjoying a rich and varied social life.
There was an informal Cadet Club in San Antonio’s
Gunter Hotel. Its location varied from the rooftop to
the basement bar, and celebrations of important mile-
stones in their training would often result in a
boisterous dunking in the nearby San Antonio River.
Officially, cadets were not supposed to be married or
have cars with them. Unofficially, some cadets were
married and many entrusted their cars to either their
wives or local girlfriends to keep off-post until the
weckends. Bandera, a small town some 30 miles west
of San Antonio in the hill country of central Texas,
was a favorite weekend retreat. It offered a number of
dude ranches and small resorts with horseback riding,
tennis courts, and private cabins. Cadets also jour-
neyed as far as Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico
for deep sca fishing and parties on the beach


i
t
i

In 1928 Brooks Field
became the site of early
experiments in paratroop
jumps. Following a num-
ber of trial runs, an
official paratroop demon-
stration was held on
September 28, 1929.
Various foreign digni-
taries were present. The
demonstration —_ included
two formations of nine
DeHavilands and three
Douglas transports. The
DeHavilands circled the
field at 2,000 feet and
dropped 18 men, while the
transports dropped 3
padded containers holding
Lewis machine guns. Four
minutes after the jump,
the machine guns were

fired from positions on the On September 28, 1929, dignitaries from various world capitals watched as
ground. In the eyes of paratroopers demonstrated their skills. In this photograph, paratroopers are
some observers, this jumping from DeHavilands.

demonstration confirmed

the practicality of tactical

paratrooper warfare (which was used on
many occasions in World War II).

Not surprisingly, many aviators, who
later distinguished themselves, got their
start at Brooks. Among the notable alumni
were Generals Nathan F. Twining,
Thomas D. White, and Curtis E. LeMay,
who went on to become Chiefs of Staff of
the Air Force between 1953 and 1965.
Brooks also had some instructors of note:
Elwood Quesada, a pioneer in mid-flight
refueling, and Claire Chennault, leader of
the Flying Tigers. Less well known but
instructors who had no less impact were
Carl J. Crane, who wrote the first manual
for instrument flying, and William C
Ocker, the first instructor to teach
instrument flight.

William C. Ocker

William C. Ocker (left) demonstrates the Ocker Box, a device
which made pilots aware of the effects of disorientation and
vertigo. When the subject viewed the instruments in the box
while the chair rotated, the instruments indicated correct
movements even though they were at odds with his senses.

Ocker, one of the great pioneers of aviation, is marked the 66th anniversary of the Army Air Corps’
known as the father of instrument flying. In fact, 1996 adoption of “blind flight” or instrument flight

5


“The College of Instrument
Knowledge,” did much to solidify
Randolph’s status as the center of
Air Force pilot instructor training.

As early as 1963, events in
Southeast Asia were beginning to
make their mark on Randolph
when Air Training Command
transferred two courses from
Moody AFB, Georgia, to
Randolph. Both were Military
Assistance Program courses
designed to meet the needs of third
world countries. The first was a
T-28 course, a conventional
undergraduate pilot training course
tailored for Vietnamese and Latin
American students. The second
was a C-47 course, a transition
course to teach rated pilots how to fly the C-47, aimed
at basically the same countries. In the next few years,
Randolph added a T-28 pilot instructor training (or
PIT) course, a C-47 instrument pilot training course, a
T-28 transition course, and a T-37 pilot instructor
training course.

As the war in Victnam cscalated, pressure
mounted for Air Training Command to produce more
pilots. Onc way to do that was to open another
undergraduate pilot training base,
and that was the course Air
Training Command decided to
pursue--at Randolph. To make
room, C-47 and T-28 courses
went to Keesler AFB, Mississippi,
early in 1967; T-37 pilot instruc-
tor training moved to Perrin AFB,
Texas, in the summer; and T-38
pilot instructor training transferred
to Tyndall AFB, Florida, late in
the year. The first students entered
primary training at Randolph on
May 16, 1967. That brought Air
Training Command’s total of
undergraduate pilot training bases
up to nine. To further accelerate
the production of pilots, Air
Training Command began taking
in a new class every two weeks
instead of every six weeks

96

03482

The North American T-39 was used as a small jet transport. In 1960-
1961, several early production T-39s went to Randolph for service
with Air Training Command.

By 197] the war was winding down, and once
again the landscape at Randolph began to change. In
the spring of 1971, T-37 pilot instructor training
returned to Randolph from Perrin, and that summer
T-38 pilot instructor training transferred back to
Randolph from Tyndall. Early in the fall, the Jast
undergraduate pilot training class graduated, and
Randolph once again took on the mantle of a teacher’s
college with the two pilot instructor training courses

In 1963 C-47 pilot training moved to Randolph. Students primarily
came from South Vietnam and Latin America.



The B-29 outdoor production line, known as the “Great White Way,” allowed round-the-clock maintenance
of the big bombers.

threat posed by communist expansion and had created
a dynamic policy of economic and military aid to other
nations. Never again could the United States retreat
behind its ocean boundaries

In June 1948, the Sovict Union, in a move to
push the Allies out of Berlin, closed all water,
rail, and highway links to the western part of the
city. Forced to choose between abandoning West
Berlin or supplying all goods by air, the western
powers began a round-the-clock airlift of vital
supplics and material inte the beleaguered city.
The Berlin Airlift, nicknamed Operation Vittles,
became the largest air cargo operation to date.
The prime workhorse of the airlift was the C-54
Skymaster transport, and Kelly was the only
depot in the country repairing and overhauling
replacement Pratt and Whitncy R2000 engines
used on that aircraft By the end of 1948, San
Antonio Air Matericl Area’s Supply Division
had shipped 1,317 R2000 engines worth $!9
million for the airlift

34

Korean War

The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950
found Kelly once again responding almost overnight
On July 1, 1950, over 2,000 aircraft sat between
Kelly's runways. Six months later over half of those
had returned to operational units. At the same time,
thousands of workers returned to the base. Many of
them were Kelly Katies, who no longer had to prove
they could do the work as well as any man, The base’s
maintenance line went into full-steam production to
recondition B-29s and P-SIs for overseas service.
Work contimied into the mght by use of special
outdoor lighting. This aircraft production line earned
the nickname of the “Great White Way” as the glow
of the lights reflected on the aluminum skin of the
bombers lit up the evening sky.

The Jet Age

During its first decade of independence, the Air
Force found its aircraft, engines, accessorics, and



By the Numbers

At a time when the only thing keeping a
pilot’s body from almost certain death was
constructed of linen-covered spruce, fir, or
mahogany, it was easy to see the importance
of establishing procedures to ensure
the proper handling of aircraft. This opera-
tional checklist is made up of actual regula-
tions set forth by the US Air Service in 1920:

1. Don’t take the machine into the air
unless you are satisfied it will fly.

2. Never leave the ground with the
motor leaking.

3. Don’t tum sharply when taxiing.
Instead of turing short, have someone lift the
tail around.

4. Never get out of the machine with the
motor running until the pilot relieving you can

reach the engine controls.

5. Pilots should carry hankies in a handy
position to wipe off goggles.

6. Riding on steps, wings, or tail of a
machine is prohibited.

7. In case the engine fails on takeoff,
land straight ahead regardless of obstacles

8. No machine must taxi faster than a
man can walk.

9. Do not trust altitude instruments.

10. If you see another machine near you,
get out of the way.

if. 1€ an emergency occurs while flying,
land as soon as you can.

12. Pilots will not wear spurs while
flying.

The advanced flying school was run by the 10th
School Group. Although the group coordinated its
training activitics with those of the primary school at
Brooks, no higher headquarters existed to supervise
all training until 1926

From 1922 to 1927, the advanced school on Kelly
Number 2 followed a course of instruction known as
the A Plan. Under this plan, cadets took 75 hours of
classroom instruction as well as actual flying training,
over a l2-week period. The first step in flying
involved transition training to acquaint cadets with the
DH-4. Once he soloed, the cadet flew on his own
except for occasional check flights with instructors.
James Burwell, who passed through the advanced
flying school in 1927, recalled that

When he graduated, a student had a total of
approximately 200 hours’ flying time, but
knew nothing of instrument flying, radio beam
work, or many of the other phases taught
today. Even so, he was regarded as being one
of the best trained pilots in the world, and it
was not unusual, near graduation time, to sce
representatives of commercial lines on the
field offering students who were about to
graduate contracts calling for three to four
times the rate of pay they were to receive in
the Army

Rarely was there a shortage of applicants, With
the number of cadet slots limited by budget restraints
to less than 200 during many years, the Air Service
could take the “cream of the crop.” For example, of
1,288 young men who sought to become pilots in
1925, only 362 passed the cadet examination, and the
Air Service only took the top 108. Attrition further
reduced cadet ranks. Of the 202 cadets who entered
training in January 1920, six months later only 61 had
graduated. Another 43 remained in training, while 98
washed out.

To enlist as a flying cadet, one had to be unmar-
nied; a US citizen; between the ages of 20 and 27;
with a high school education, good character, excel-
tent health, and sound physique. Non-rated Army
officers could also apply for flight training as could
Regular Army enlisted men who met the rest of the
requirements. Later, the education requirement was
raised to include two or three years of college,
preferably in an enginccring field.


Since 1942 the School of Air Evacuation has been
located at Bowman Field, Kentucky; Randolph Field,
Texas, Gunter Air Force Basc, Alabama; and Brooks
Air Force Base, Texas. More than 11,500 nurses and
7,800 technicians have been trained in the specialty of
flight nursing. Additionally, 17 nations have sent
nurses and technicians to learn the techniques and
skills required to care for paticnts in the airborne
environment. Three nations have developed their own
programs using the USAF model.

Flight nurses and aeromedical evacuation techni-
cians trained at Brooks provide care to the sick and
wounded in a variety of aircraft: passenger, cargo,
bombers, and tankers. During the Korean War, two
acromedical evacuation squadrons were the first Air
Force units to be awarded the Meritorious Unit
Citation. Flight nurses moved the first patients out of
Vietnam in 1954, airlifting injured French soldiers to
France and Algeria following the fall of Dien Bien
Phu. In 1975 flight nurses and medical technicians
assisted in returning the Victnam prisoners of war to
the United States. More recently in Operation Desert
Storm, flight nurscs and acromedical technicians used
the total force concept, integrating medical crews from
active duty, reserve, and guard forces.

Flight nurses and aeromedical evacuation
technicians also have given their lives in the per-
formance of their dutics. Seventeen nurses and 13
technicians were killed during World War Il. Three
flight nurses dicd during the Korean War. In Vietnam
one nurse and two technicians were killed while
airlifting orphans from Saigon during Operation
Babylift. Also in World War II, one flight nurse
became a German prisoner of war in Europe, and 13
nurses and 13 technicians were forced to utilize the
skills they learned in survival training when their
aircraft crash-landed in Albania, and they had to make
their way to friendly forces in Italy.

Whether during periods of conflict or peace,
natural disaster or individual emergency, flight nurses
and aeromedical evacuation technicians have been
there to censure that pcople receive the best care
possible. Their area of responsibility knows no
boundaries.

In 1992, as part of the commemoration of the 75th
anniversary of Brooks Air Force Base and the 50th
birthday of flight nursing, the Brooks Heritage

62

Foundation moved, renovated, and refurbished a
World War II-era structure (Building 754) to house
the Aeromedical Evacuation Annex at the Edward H.
White Il Memorial Muscum. The heritage foundation
formally presented the building to the base on
November 13, 1992, the 75th anniversary of the death
of Cadet Brooks.

Aeromedical Evacuation

Legend has it that the first air evacuation of
injured soldicrs occurred during the Franco-Prussian
War when wounded men were airlifted in hot air
balloons from the city of Paris. Fact or fiction, this act
spurred the imagination of those involved in the
development of the airplane.

The first ambulance plane was constructed in
1910 but failed to carry patients as it crashed on its
maiden test flight. The first actual air cvacuation of
wounded military personnel took place in April 1918
at Flanders, France.

At Gerstner Field, Louisiana, in February 1918,
Major Nelson Driver and Captain William Ocker
converted a Jenny biplane into an air evacuation
aircraft. This was done to assist in the retum of pilots
who crashed their planes in remote locations which
were inaccessible to automobiles. The doctor could fly
to the crash site, treat the pilot, and transport him
back to a hospital for further care

Between 1918 and 1930, cight different aircraft
were either modified or specifically designed to be air
ambulances. These aircraft could carry up to six
Stretcher patients and/or ambulatory _ patients
depending upon the size and design of the aircraft.
Most patients were transported on these aircraft with
only the pilot in attendance. Despite this foray into the
construction and utilization of airplanes for air
evacuation purposes, the military authorities did not
support large scale usc of aircraft for the
transportation of the sick and wounded, nor did they
assign or develop a cadre of personnel to accompany
patients when being transported

In the 1930s some efforts were made in the
civilian community to transport patients via aircraft.
Duc to the high cost it did not catch on, and with the
advent of World War II, most aircraft were needed to
support the war effort.



The first dismantling of World War II structures
came in 1952-1953, when most of the barracks.
hastily thrown up in the second wave of wartime
construction (1943) were removed. These single-
story, tar-papered barracks with detached latrine/
shower buildings were more durable than quonset
huts but less substantial than the two-story barracks.
The last of the 129 barracks were dismantled after the
cryptographic equipment maintenance school moved
out in 1961.

In 1957 Lackland got its first visible sign of
permanence. A new nine-story, 500-bed hospital
dominated the north rim of the base, displacing most
of the 94 temporary buildings that had made up the
hospital complex. The hospital added a 500-bed wing
in 1961,

It was between 1966 and 1971 that perceptible
change began. First, contractors razed or moved 109
World War II barracks from the east (or permanent
party) side of Lackland. A main base exchange
complex took their place in 1971. At the same time,
on the west (or training) side of Lackland, contractors
built more facilities for recruit housing and training.

Lackland commanders, starting with Major
General Andrew P. losue in 1976, began removing
the old, temporary structures as rapidly as possible.
With less training and housing footage on the books
for Lackland, Air Training Command could better
justify requests for new classrooms and dormitories.
New construction in the 1980s was almost exclu-
sively for unaccompanied permanent personnel quar-
ters and technical trainee dormitories. The former
opened for occupancy in 1981; the latter came in four
projects completed in 1983, 1986, 1987, and 1989,
With the completion of a visiting airmen quarters in
1990, along with yet another round of World War II
barracks demolition, Lackland stood poised at the
threshold of permanence.

To accomplish this final phase, base leaders
launched "Fix Lackland" in the mid-1980s. The first
phase tackled crumbling infrastructure: sewers,
sewage treatment, water mains, and roads. Lackland
already had pledges of command and Air Staff
support for major construction in the early 1990s
when the deepening federal fiscal crisis and the
Desert Shield/Storm contingency put most projects
on indefinite hold. Since the war, Lackland has made
giant strides in its rebuilding project.

In June 1997 the Air Force activated the Force
Protection Battlelab at Lackland. Dedicated to
keeping the US Air Force one step ahead of the
terrorist threat, the lab opened in response to the 1996
bombing at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, when 19
airmen died in a terrorist attack. Later in the year, a
new Security Forces Center opened to house Security
Forces headquarters, which moved to Lackland from
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico.

As a result of numerous sexual harassment inci-
dents in the military services in the 1990s, Congress
established the Kassebaum-Baker Committee in 1997
to study whether military training, especially that of
newly enlisted personnel, should be integrated by
gender or not. At the same time, the Department of
Defense set up its own advisory committee. In con-
gressional testimony, the AETC commander firmly
advocated maintaining gender-integrated basic train-
ing at Lackland, which the Air Force had been con-
ducting since 1990 so that the service could continue
to train as it operated. The Air Force instituted
several actions to insure better recruit safety and
privacy following the Kassebaum-Baker report but
retained its gender-integrated recruit training.

In October 1999 the 37th Training Wing made a
major change to its basic military training curriculum
with the implementation of Warrior Week. While not
changing the six-week length of basic military train-
ing, this week-long encampment exposed trainees to
living conditions they might expect to find during a
real world deployment and included a realistic
combat exercise.

As a result of the July 2001 closure of the San
Antonio Air Logistics Center, Lackland would
assume control of the Kelly airfield. The resulting
merger would make Lackland one of the most
heavily populated bases in the Air Force.

VW



Gazetteer

Alamo Field (today known as San Antonio Inter-
national Airport). Used as an auxiliary field of Dyess
Army Air Field and Brooks Field from 1942 until
1945,

Cade Field. Located 8 miles northeast of San
Antonio. Leased to Randolph Field from 1932-1949
as an auxiliary field.

C. A, Krueger Field. Located on farm Jand 7.5 miles
east of Randolph Field. Leased by Randolph from
1932-1945 as an auxiliary field.

Camp Bullis. Located north of San Antonio off
Interstate 10. First established as a cantonment area in
1918. Its 28,000 acres remain in use as a maneuver
area and firing range.

Camp John Wise. Located near Fort Sam Houston.
Built as an Army balloon school in 1917, it was used
in conjunction with the balloon school at Brooks Field
until 1922.

Camp Normoyle. Located | mile east of Kelly AFB.
Established in 1918 as a Quartermaster Depot and
continued that function until 1945, at which time it was
redesignated as East Kelly.

Camp Stanley. Located north of San Antonio off
Interstate 10. Part of a land purchase started in 1906,
Camp Stanley was first established as an Officer
Training Camp in 1917.

Castroville Field. Located 2 miles east of Castroville,
and 20 miles east of Hondo. Acquired in early 1939
and used off and on until 1991 as an auxiliary field of
Kelly Field, Hondo Army Air Field, San Marcos Army
Air Field (later renamed Edward Gary AFB), and
Randolph AFB.

Clear Springs Field. Located 4 miles east of New
Braunfels. Leased from 1940-1967 as an auxiliary
field of Randolph and Edward Gary AFBs.

Davenport Field. Located on farm land 5.5 miles
northwest of Randolph Field. Leased from 1932-1952
as an auxiliary field of Randolph.

113

Diltz Field (also known as Flores Field). Located
18 1/2 miles southeast of Brooks Field and 38
miles northwest of Floresville. Leased as an auxi-
liary field of Brooks and Randolph Fields from
1943-1946,

Dodd Field. Located 2 miles north of Fort Sam
Houston in the general vicinity of Harry Wurzbach
Road between Winans and Rittman Roads. First
known as Fort Sam Houston Remount Station #1, it
became known as Dodd Field in 1915. Used as a
flying field into World War II when it became home to
the 60th Troop Carrier Squadron. Used to hold
German, Japanese, and Italian prisoners of war in
World War Il.

Duncan Field. Originally designated as Camp Kelly
in 1917. Later that year, it was renamed Kelly Field
Number |. In 1926 it became Duncan Field, home of
the Air Corps Training Center. Duncan Field merged
with Kelly Field in 1943.

Hondo Municipal Airport. Located 2.) miles
northwest of Hondo. Originally activated as Hondo
Army Air Field in 1942 and used for navigation
training. Since 1973 used for the Air Force flight
screening program.

Macdona Field (also known as Houze Field). Located
2 miles south of Highway 90. Leased from 1938-1945
as an auxiliary field of Kelly and Brooks Fields.

Martindale Field. Located in east San Antonio just
south of Interstate 10. First leased in 1932 as an

auxiliary field of Randolph. It was fater purchased and
continues in use.

Rio Medina Field. Located 5 miles north of
Castroville. Leased as an auxiliary field of Kelly,
Brooks, and Hondo from 1940-1945.

Seguin Field. Located 3 miles east of Seguin. Leased
in 1940 as an auxiliary field of Randolph.

Stinson Field. {ocated in southeast San Antonio.
Gained by Kelly Field in 1917 as Flying Field
Number 5 and used off and on until 1973



the new front fork for the landing gear, in his opinion,
was poor quality and had an unnecessary hole dniled
through it. On May 10, 1911, the repaired plane was
ready, although no test flight had confirmed the
integrity of the repairs. Into the seat climbed
Lieutenant Kelly, the least experienced of the three
young officers and very eager to try his luck with the
Curtiss machine.

George Edward Maurice Kelly was bom in
London, England, on December 14, 1878. Educated at
several schools, he emigrated to the United States in
1896 at the age of 17 and joined two uncles already in
business in Great Falls, Montana. At the outbreak of
the Boer War, he attempted to enlist in the Canadian
Mounted Rifles, but they rejected him, purportedly
duc to light weight. In 1902 Kelly became a
naturalized American citizen, but he still desired a
military career. Learning that commissions in the US
Army could be obtained by enlisted men, he signed up
with the coast artillery in January 1904, exactly a
month after his 25th birthday, After serving the
mandatory two years, he applied for a commission in
December 1905 and took the preliminary examination
the following March. By the time he took the final
examination in January 1907, Kelly was a sergeant.
On Febmary 28, 1907, he accepted an appointment as
a second lieutenant in the 30th Infantry Regiment and
by mid-summer was scrving with that regiment in the
Philippines

As was common in the Army during the carly
1900s, Kelly took a leisurely leave on his return,
traveling through China, Egypt, and Europe before
rejoining his regiment in December 1909. While on
duty near San Francisco, he had the chance to make
a balloon ascent. Bitten by the flying bug, he won
approval from the War Department to go to San
Diego in February 1911 for flight training under
Glenn Curtiss. He had flown for fess than four
months when he clambered aboard the Model [V
pusher sitting near the Fort Sam Houston parade
ground, fired up the four-cylinder engine, and
stecred the flimsy, wood, cloth, and wire biplane
into the air.

A number of individuals, including Foulois, Frank
Coffyn of the Wright Company (serving as a flight
instructor), and Lieutenants Horace Hickam and
Leighton Hazelhurst, observed Kelly’s flight. As they
watched, Kelly spent about five minutes circling the

parade ground and then came in to land. He was going
far too fast, and his angle of descent was, they noted,
too stecp. The wheels of the Curtiss plane hit hard,
bouncing Kelly back up. He circled and tried again
Reports differ on this sccond approach, but Kelly
apparently got the glide angle right and reduced
power. Some observers, however, claimed that the
aircraft controls did not seem to operate as they
should have. In any case, once again, the touchdown
was hard, bouncing the plane up several feet. Engine
roaring, Kelly’s planc headed toward the tents of the
1Jth Infantry. Whether it was done deliberately, as
some accounts suggest, or was simply the result of a
lack of control, the aircraft now banked to the left, and
a wing tip caught the ground. The plane tumed a
cartwheel, pitched the young licutcnant a considerable
distance over the front elevator, and then disintegrated
into a mass of tom fabric and shattered wood, with
bracing wire tangled in the. whirling propellor.
Rescuers ran to where Kelly lay unconscious. He had
fractured his skull. Rushed to a local hospital, he died
two hours later.

George Kelly was the first American military
aviator to dic in the crash of a military airplane, and
his death cast a pall over the small group of flyers. In
later years, Foulois claimed that the fault was Beck’s
for failing to test the repairs made to the Curtiss the
day before. This, coupled with Kelly’s lack of
experience, was the real cause of the crash, not the
loss of elevator control together with an error in
judgment over the selection of a proper landing
location finally cited unanimously by the board of
officers that investigated the accident. “My prejudiced
viewpoint was not introduccd into the investigation,”
Foulois stated, since Major Squier “did not put me on
the board and I was not called as a witness.”
However, the records show quite clearly that Foulois
was indced on the board, along with Beck and Walker,
and in fact was the senior flying officer to pass official
judgment, casting doubt on some of the assertions he
made over 50 years later

There is, however, no debate on the outcome of
Kelly’s fatal crash. Already annoyed by the intrusion
of the noisy, dangerous machines on his parade
ground, General Wilham H. Carter, Commander of
the Maneuver Division at Fort Sam Houston, now
demanded that the airmen take themselves and their
contraptions to some other site, forbidding all flying at
the fort.



Air Training
Command stopped
using the T-34 (top)
and T-28 (below) for
pilot training after
1960, while the T-33
(right) remained active
until 1967.

94

which established an advanced echelon of its
headquarters at Randolph on that same day. Between
July and October, Flying Training Air Force relocated
the rest of the headquarters element from Waco,
Texas, to Randolph. In a parallel action, the Air Staff
had decided to move Air Training Command
headquarters from Scott AFB, IHinois, to Randolph.
The move began with the establishment of an
advanced headquarters contingent at Randolph on
August | and was completed on September 30, 1957.
No sooner had Air Training Command settled in its
new surroundings when the command announced in
January 1958 that it intended to consolidate the
functions performed by Flying Training and Technical
Trainmg Air Forces in its new headquarters at

Randolph. Subsequently, Air Training Command
inactivated Flying Training Air Force on April 1 and
closed Technical Training Air Force operations in
Gulfport, Mississippi, on June 1, 1958

Changes in Pilot Training

At the turn of the decade, the Air Force decided to
change the way it conducted pilot traming. It decided
to close the contract primary schools, replace all
civilian flying instructors with military instructor
pilots, and consolidate preflight, primary, and basic
instruction at a handful of bases. One by onc the
contract primary schools closed and with them went
Air Training Command’s last T-28s and T-34s. Tho
undergraduate pilot training program would rely on


from the very beginning of America’s push
into space. In 1979 the space shuttle
Columbia, perched piggyback atop its
mother ship, a Boeing 747, arrived at
Kelly for the first time for a refueling stop
on its way to a launch at Florida’s
Kennedy Space Center.

Into the Twenty-First Century

In the predawn hours of December 19,
1989, Kelly leamed of the role it would
play in Operation Just Cause, the US
i military effort to end the corrupt dictator-
ship of Panamanian strongman Manuel 5
Noriega. A few hours later, the first air- a
craft from Panama landed, carrying

Americans wounded in the fighting. Since its first arrival in 1979, the space shuttle, piggy-back

During Just Cause, Kelly served as a atop its 747 mother ship, has been a familiar site at Kelly.
reception point for over 250 wounded

service men and as a transit point for over

8,200 troops who deployed in and out of Panama. Only cight months later, Kelly found itself sup-
porting another American military cffort overseas. In
August 1990, Iraqi troops overwhelmed the tiny, oil-
rich nation of Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia.
Response was immediate as the United States and
other allied nations sent military forces to Southwest
Asia to halt any further aggression and force the
troops of Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. By the time
allied forces had routed the Iraqis in March 1991,
Kelly had moved thousands of tons of material and
4,700 passengers and deployed over 17 million
pounds of munitions to the area. Kelly workers also
surged maintenance work on C-5 and B-52 aircraft;
F100, TF39, and T56 engines; and other vital war
matericl.

With the end of the Cold War, Kelly went through
many changes as the military budget grew increas-
ingly smaller. Many of the changes stemmed directly
from the results of a series of proposals known as
Defense Management Review Decisions or DMRDs.
These proposals changed nearly ever facet of Air
Force logistics, including the merger of Air Force
Logistics Command with Air Force Systems Com-
mand into the new Air Force Matericl Command
Other DMRDs altercd the air logistic center’s finan-
cial operations, communications-computer systems

At the end of Operation Desert Storm, support, and management of consumable items. An
Kelly’s flightline, once again, was the increased emphasis on competition also revised the
scene of many joyful reunions. way the San Antonio Air Logistics Center conducted

39