Eagle Pass Army Airfield Eagle Pass Army Airfield is a former World War II military airfield complex . It is located north of Eagle Pass , Texas . It operated as a training base for the United States Army Air Forces from 1943 until 1945 . Later , during the Cold War , Eagle Pass Air Force Station ( ADC ID : TM - 188 ) was a United States Air Force Radar facility . It was operated by Air Defense Command on the site of the World War II air base . Opened in 1957 , it was closed in 1963 . The facility was finally closed in 1991 when the United States Air Force ended its use of the airfield , having designated the field as Laughlin Air Force Auxiliary Landing Field # 1 in 1962 , using it as part of the pilot training school at Laughlin AFB . History . World War II . The airport was activated on 30 June 1942 as Eagle Pass Army Air Field as part of the Army Air Forces Training Command . It was assigned to the Central Flying Training Command ( CFTC ) , being under the jurisdiction of the 57th Basic Flying Training Group , 33d Flying Training Wing ( Advanced , Single - Engine ) . The airfield consisted of three 5 , 500 - foot concrete runways . During the summer of 1942 , three runways were laid down along with a large parking ramp and taxiway system . Four large hangars along with support buildings , barracks a street network , electric , sewer and water lines were constructed . In addition , Eagle Pass controlled three auxiliary fields . The mission of Eagle Pass AAF was advanced flying training in single - engine trainers . Its principal trainer aircraft was the North American T - 6 Texan . It was a 3d - phase training base , its flying cadets having successfully completed primary and basic flight training . Upon graduation , the flying cadets were commissioned as Second Lieutenants and assigned to one of the numbered air forces for assignment to an operational unit . The 57th Basic Flying Training Group consisted of the following subordinate units : On 1 March 1944 , aircraft training units in the United States were re - organized and the 57th was inactivated , being taken over by the 2516th Army Air Force Base Unit . On 23 November 1944 , the training at the base was changed to a phase one basic flying school , providing flight training to cadets with little or no previous flying training . On 19 April 1945 , Army Air Forces Training Command notified the base commander at Eagle Pass that the station would be inactivated . Personnel began to be transferred to other bases and the number of personnel was decreased rapidly . All flight training at the field was discontinued on 30 April 1945 and the base was turned over to Air Technical Service Command ; the base was inactivated on 1 May 1945 . After inactivation , all useful military equipment was transferred from the base ; the wood and tarpaper buildings were dismantled or sold . Title however , was retained by the United States Air Force and the facility was carried as a reserve airfield in the postwar years and through the 1950s . Air Defense Command . In 1953 , the United States Air Force Air Defense Command requested a third phase of twenty - five mobile radar sites be constructed to supplement the permanent national network of sites established during the Cold War . In 1957 , the Air Force returned and reactivated a portion of the reserve World War II facility ; opening Eagle Pass Air Force Station on a small area of the former ground station . The 733d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned to Eagle Pass AFS by the 33d Air Division on 3 July 1957 . The squadron began operating an AN / FPS - 20 A search radar and an AN / FPS - 6 height - finder , and initially the station functioned as a Ground - Control Intercept ( GCI ) and warning station . As a GCI station , the squadron ' s role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit ' s radar scopes . In addition to the main facility , Eagle Pass operated several AN / FPS - 14 Gap Filler sites : In March 1963 the Air Force ordered the Radar site to close and operations ceased on 1 August 1963 . With the closure of the ADC radar site , the majority of the station was disposed of , although the airfield was retained by the Air Force . Air Training Command . A portion of the wartime Eagle Pass airfield was reopened under the name of Laughlin AF Aux # 1 in 1962 for touch and go landings by T - 37 Tweet training aircraft based at Laughlin AFB . The wartime NW / SE ( 14 / 32 ) runway was refurbished and asphalted , with the runway extended to the southeast to accommodate overruns on each end . The airfield was uncontrolled and no personnel were assigned to the field . In 1991 a replacement auxiliary airfield was built in nearby Spofford , and Eagle Pass Auxiliary field was closed . Current use . With the closure of the radar station in 1963 , the World War II station area was disposed of by the Air Force and transferred to Maverick County . The former ADC military family housing area was redeveloped into a government civil housing development . The local government also took over the ADC water filtration plant and a sewage disposal plant . Several light commercial and industrial sites were built on the former air base . At some point between 1991 – 94 , after the closure of the flying field by the Air Force , the touch - and - go runway was apparently operated as a private airfield , named Bowles Airfield . In the late 1990s , Eagle Pass Municipal Airport was closed and general aviation operations moved to Bowles Airfield , being renamed Maverick County Memorial International Airport ( FAA : 5T9 ) . Today , the airport has about 50 general aviation flight operations per month , but no commercial airline service . The airport utilizes the former Air Force NW / SE ( 14 / 32 ) runway , its asphalt in fair condition . The airport also has a terminal and FBO building constructed on the former World War II parking ramp . The large World War II airfield not used by the Air Force or the airport remains abandoned and left to the elements . Concrete foundations of two of the wartime hangars remain , the structures torn down in the 1960s , and the large parking ramp remains , largely in a deteriorated state . One of the World War II hangars remains , it being utilized by a private firm . The Air Defense Command radar station is largely intact . Following the radar - site closure the FPS - 20A and FPS - 6 towers were torn down in late 1965 . Several abandoned barracks remain standing , although one of the buildings has a collapsed second floor along with the station support buildings , the operations buildings remain standing ; all concrete and steel structures , largely overgrown with vegetation and deteriorated after 50 years of abandonment . Many of the former streets of the station remain in undeveloped areas .