RANDOLPH AFB, Texas – For more than 250 years, armed service members have fought to maintain America’s freedom and independence.
Efforts to defend the nation’s airspace can be traced back to San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston, which is considered the birthplace of America’s military aviation.
Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois laid the foundation, according to historic accounts, which state he brought the first military plane to Fort Sam Houston in 1910.
Foulois was given one order: learn how to fly, and had to learn to do so, largely through the mail.
“He didn’t have aviation experience as a pilot. He had gotten an earlier ride with Orville Wright at Fort Myers,” said Col. Tom Shaw, a former Marine pilot. “He would correspond with the Wright brothers just in bits and pieces. (With) a lot of pluck and a lot of luck, he managed to teach himself how to fly.”
Shaw is a volunteer guide for the Texas Air Museum at Stinson Field, and helps show decades of military and civilian aviation history on exhibit at the South Side museum.
After Foulois learned to fly, Shaw said he trained a group of soldiers assigned to learn how to fly as well.
“It’s very similar to the Navy’s TOPGUN school,” Shaw said. “He was going to be the duty expert, as we say in the military, and then he was able to train the follow-on folks.”
These service members would become the first Aero Squadron, the first official airplane unit of the United States Army.
Aero Squadron’s success led to the expansion of military flight training, with several training camps established across America, including Camp Kelly, later known as Kelly Air Force Base.
Randolph, Brooks and Lackland Air Force bases would later be established in San Antonio, leading to the city becoming known as “Military City USA.”
Today, Randolph Air Force Base continues the military’s aviation legacy.
“It’s often called the showplace of the Air Force. Randolph is a place to be, you know,” said Lane Bourgeois, historian for the 12th Flying Training Wing. “We’re kind of a hub of the Air Force.”
“Everyone who gets training in an aircraft has been through Randolph for pilot training, because that’s what we do,” Bourgeois said, “we do pilot instructor training.”
Taxing down flight lines at Randolph, Bourgeois said there are two planes training the next generation of pilots: a T-38 Talon from the 1960s and the new T-7A Red Hawk trainer.
“We’re now going to an advanced flying training, a T-7, that will fulfill the needs of Generation 5, Generation 6 type pilots,” Bourgeois said.
The first Red Hawk trainer arrived at the base in last December with hundreds more on the way.
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