DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Laredo Air Force Base, out in Webb County. Now, before there was an international airport on the north side of Laredo, before there was a Cold War training ground hosting pilots from two dozen nations, before any of that — there was just a strip of South Texas dirt and the ambitions of a nation gearing up for war. Twice.
Let's go back to World War I. Kelly Field up in San Antonio hit its peak training capacity and the U.S. Army started building auxiliary landing fields across South Texas to handle the overflow.
One of those fields went in right here, just north of Fort McIntosh in Laredo. That was the seed. Fast forward to 1940.
Another war is gathering on the horizon, and the city of Laredo decides it's time to do something serious. They hire a local contractor — H.B. Zachry — to build a proper airport to replace that old landing strip.
And when it comes time to name the thing, they call it Zachry Field. Not after H.B. himself, mind you, but after his father — U.S. Army Colonel John Zachry.
That's the kind of honor that means something. Now here's where things start moving fast. In 1941, local leaders go looking for leverage in Washington.
They find it in U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard, chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, and they persuade him to petition for a wartime training facility right there in Laredo. Sheppard pushes.
Washington listens. On May 7, 1942, the U.S. Military acquires Zachry Field.
And they do not think small. They expand the site to more than two thousand and eighty-five acres. Then they tack on an additional six hundred and eighty-five thousand acres of aerial target ranges stretching northwest toward Eagle Pass.
And if that weren't enough — thirty-five thousand more acres north of the city for ground target practice. When the military decides it needs room, it takes room. By 1944, the Laredo Army Air Field Flexible Gunnery School had hit its own peak — more than fifteen thousand personnel and two hundred and fifty aircraft.
Airmen trained there in gunnery instruction, airplane mechanics, turret mechanics, all of it aimed at getting medium and heavy bombers into the fight. And while that was happening, Women Airforce Service pilots were flying engineering tests right there on the same field. The place was humming.
Then came late 1945. The field went inactive. The land transferred over to the War Assets Administration, and it must have seemed like the whole enterprise might just fade into the mesquite.
But South Texas has a way of not staying quiet for long. In 1952, the Korean War pulls the base back to life — reactivated as Laredo Air Force Base. And this time, the mission reaches far beyond American borders.
The base provided basic training for cadets from the United States Air Force and twenty-four North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries. Twenty-four. Pilots from across the free world learned to fly in the skies above Webb County.
The base kept at it until 1973, when the military declared the facility excess and deactivated the command. And then, two years later, in 1975, the site reopened as Laredo International Airport — still an aviation hub, just wearing different clothes. From a World War I dirt strip to a gunnery school with fifteen thousand souls to a Cold War NATO training ground to an international airport — that piece of land north of Laredo has never stopped moving.
Some ground just has that kind of pull.
What the marker says
During World War I, Kelly Field (San Antonio), reached its peak training capacity and the U.S. Army built several auxiliary landing fields in South Texas, including one in Laredo north of Fort McIntosh. In 1940, as the nation faced another war, the city of Laredo hired local contractor H.B. Zachry to build an airport to replace the landing strip. The city named the airport Zachry Field in honor of H.B.'s father, U.S. Army colonel John Zachry. In 1941, local leaders persuaded U.S. senator Morris Sheppard, chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, to petition for a wartime training facility in Laredo. On May 7, 1942, the U.S. Military acquired Zachry Field, expanding the site to more than 2,085 acres, with an additional 685,000 acres of aerial target ranges northwest toward Eagle Pass ad 35,000 acres north of the city for ground target practice. In 1944, Laredo Army Air Field Flexible Gunnery School reached its peak capacity with more than 15,000 personnel and 250 aircraft. Airmen here trained in gunnery instruction and airplane and turret mechanics for medium and heavy bombers. While Women Airforce Service pilots flew engineering tests. In late 1945, the field became inactive and the land transferred to the War Assets Administration. In 1952, during the Korean War, the site reactivated as Laredo Air Force Base, providing basic training for cadets from the U.S. Air Force and 24 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries. The base continued in operation until 1973, when the military declared the facility excess and deactivated the command. The site reopened in 1975 as Laredo International Airport, continuing its long association with aviation history in the area. (2007)