DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Foster Army Air Field, out in Victoria County. Before the bombs ever fell on Pearl Harbor, the United States Army Air Corps was already looking at a map and sweating. The Axis nations had built themselves air armadas — powerful, practiced, terrifying — and America was scrambling to match them.
Training installations were going up all across the country, fast as they could pour concrete and string wire. And the city of Victoria, Texas, was not about to be left out. Victoria secured an advanced single engine aerial gunnery training command, and construction broke ground on April 25, 1941.
They called it Victoria Field at first — practical name, no fuss. But the military had other ideas. They renamed the place in honor of 1st Lieutenant Arthur L.
Foster, an instructor out of Brooks Field in San Antonio, who was killed when his plane crashed in 1925. That name would carry some weight for the next several decades. The first class of cadets rolled in that September — September of 1941 — and from then on, class after class kept arriving throughout the war.
These young men sat in classrooms, climbed into cockpits, and then flew out to practice their gunnery at ranges on Matagorda Island and Matagorda Peninsula. You learn to shoot a moving gun from a moving plane over open water, and you either get good at it or you have a real bad afternoon. Now here's where the story opens up a little.
In 1942, the military assigned a unit of the Women's Army Corps to Foster. And the cooperation between the United States and its Allied nations brought foreign aviators here for training — most notably the 201st Fighter Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force. History knows them as the Aztec Eagles.
All those languages, all those uniforms, all converging on Victoria, Texas. But World War II ended, as wars do. Foster Army Air Field closed on October 31, 1945.
And you might think that's the end of the story. It is not even close to the end of the story. The inactivation was short lived — that's exactly how the marker puts it, and there's a wry understatement in those words.
Because in 1951, the Korean War came calling, and suddenly America needed jet training facilities in a hurry. The people of Victoria rallied again. Through local solicitation, they convinced the military to take another look.
Foster was reactivated on April 1, 1952, and the first class of jet aviation cadets arrived in March of 1953. Then, on July 1, 1954, Foster Air Force Base became a permanent military installation. Permanent.
They even made it the tactical air command control center for the western United States. That is not nothing, for a field that once was just called Victoria. And then, in December of 1958, the military closed Foster AFB.
Two years after that, the federal government turned the airfield over to Victoria County — in exchange for nearby Aloe Field, which the government then sold to private investors. Pieces of history, changing hands, finding new purposes. In 1976, Foster Field became Victoria Regional Airport.
Cadets became passengers. Gunnery ranges became runways for the everyday. But the name Foster is still out there on the signs, still carrying the memory of a flight instructor from Brooks Field who never made it home — and of every cadet, every aviator, every Aztec Eagle who trained here and went out to meet the world.
What the marker says
Prior to World War II, in an effort to match the powerful air armadas of the Axis nations, the U.S. Army Air Corps (later U.S. Army Air Forces) rapidly increased its number of training installations throughout the country. The city of Victoria secured an advanced single engine aerial gunnery training command here, with construction beginning on April 25, 1941. Initially named Victoria Field, the military renamed the site in honor of 1st Lt. Arthur L. Foster, an instructor at Brooks Field (San Antonio) killed when his plane crashed in 1925. The first class of cadets arrived in Sept. 1941 and subsequent classes arrived throughout the war. Cadets received both classroom flight instruction and gunnery training on site, with aerial gunnery practice at ranges on Matagorda Island and Matagorda Peninsula. In 1942, the military assigned a unit of the Women's Army Corps here. Cooperation between the U.S. and Allied nations brought foreign aviators here during the war for training, most notably the 201st Fighter Squadron, Mexican Expeditionary Air Force (The Aztec Eagles). The end of World War II brought the closure of military sites across the nation. Foster Army Air Field (AFF) closed on October 31, 1945; however, the airfield's inactivation was short lived. In 1951, the Korean War created a need for additional jet training facilities and once again the people of Victoria rallied behind efforts to secure a military installation. As a result of local solicitation, the military reactivated Foster AFF on April 1, 1952, with the first class of jet aviation cadets arriving in March 1953. On July 1, 1954, Foster Air Force Base (AFB) became a permanent military installation and later became the tactical air command control center for the western U.S. In Dec. 1958 the military closed Foster AFB. Two years later the federal government turned the airfield over to Victoria County in exchange for nearby Aloe Field, which the governemnt sold to private investors. In 1976, Foster Field became Victoria Regional Airport. (2008)