DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about Dagley Field, out there in Lubbock County. Now, aircraft vastly changed the face of war — that's not just a saying, that's a fact the marker plants right at the top — and Dagley Field had a hand in that transformation. So let me tell you how a stretch of West Texas dirt between 34th Street and 42nd Street, Quaker Avenue to Utica Avenue, ended up mattering to the whole American war machine.
It starts with tension. The late 1930s, and the United States could feel something building on the horizon. So the country stood up the Civilian Pilot Training Program — the CPTP — administered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
The idea was this: take college students, run them through classroom instruction and actual flight time, and let the program itself do the winnowing. The classes eliminated those who lacked potential. Only the qualified ones went on to train as army or navy pilots.
Smart design, when you think about it — wash out the weak links early, before the stakes get any higher. Texas Technological College in Lubbock took that charge seriously. From September 1939 all the way to June 1944, Tech trained about six thousand five hundred CPTP and Pre-Flight students through the 309th College Training Detachment — Aircrew.
Six thousand five hundred people learning to fly, right there in Lubbock. And half of them — half — flew at Dagley Field. Now let me paint you this airfield.
It sat on 34th Street, stretched a half mile west from Quaker Avenue to Utica Avenue, then ran south to 42nd Street. Four dirt runways. One hangar, a hundred and forty feet long, doing triple duty as office, workshop, and doping room.
Not exactly grand. But it did the work. The man behind it all was Maenard F.
Dagley — went by "Dag," naturally — and he moved his flying service onto that quarter-section of land after the U.S. Army Air Forces moved into Lubbock Municipal Airport in June of 1942. Dag had the field, Dag had the students, and Dag had a program to run.
Then March of 1943 arrives, and here's where the story takes a turn. Dagley himself was called into wartime service. The man who built the place had to leave it.
Into the breach stepped Clent Breedlove of Breedlove Aerial Service, who assumed responsibility for the students and kept the training going. Training ended on June 30, 1944 — and the airfield didn't carry the Dagley name much longer after that. It changed over to Lubbock Aero Field, pivoting to private lessons and charter flights.
A new chapter. But the old hangar — that hundred-and-forty-foot workhorse that had seen thousands of student pilots pass through — it didn't make it. On April 29, 1945, due to a welding accident, the hangar burned.
Just like that, gone. After the war ended and the demand for trained pilots decreased, the field closed altogether. Then in late 1946, a man named Samuel D.
Baggett — long-time property owner of that land — subdivided it into commercial and residential lots and named the new addition College Heights. The runways and the doping room gave way to neighborhoods. Later, Stubbs Elementary School opened on that ground and served the children of Lubbock all the way until 2001.
Six thousand five hundred students. Four dirt runways. One hangar that burned on a spring afternoon.
And a piece of West Texas flatland that went from flight school to family neighborhood without ever making much noise about what it had done. That's Dagley Field.
What the marker says
Aircraft vastly changed the face of war and Dagley Field played a part in that transformation. As tensions mounted in the late 1930s, the United States created the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), administered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. This program offered college students classroom instruction and flight time. The classes eliminated those who lacked potential and ensured that only qualified candidates trained to be army or navy pilots. Texas Technological College in Lubbock trained about 6,500 CPTP and Pre-Flight students in the 309th College Training Detachment (Aircrew) from September 1939 to June 1944. Half of these students flew at Dagley Field. The airport was located on 34th Street and extended one-half mile west from Quaker Avenue to Utica Avenue and then south to 42nd Street. It consisted of four dirt runways and one 140-foot long hangar, which served as an office, workshop and doping room. Maenard F. "Dag" Dagley moved his flying service onto this quarter-section of land after the U.S. Army Air Forces moved into the Lubbock Municipal Airport in June 1942. In March 1943, Dagley himself was called into wartime service, and Clent Breedlove of Breedlove Aerial Service assumed responsibility for the students. Training ended on June 30, 1944, and the airfield name changed to Lubbock Aero Field, offering private lessons and charter flights. Due to a welding accident, the hangar burned on April 29, 1945. After the war ended and the demand for trained pilots decreased, the field closed. In late 1946, long-time property owner Samuel D. Baggett subdivided the land into commercial and residential lots, naming the new addition College Heights. Later, Stubbs Elementary School opened and served the children of Lubbock until 2001. (2017)