DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Southeast Texas Regional Airport in Jefferson County. Now settle in, because this one's got more lift than you might expect from a stretch of flat East Texas ground. It starts in 1941, when Jefferson County Commissioners went out and bought land — just land, mind you, raw acreage with nothing on it but ambition and maybe a few confused armadillos.
Construction began the following year, and what rose up out of that ground was no small thing: three runways, a taxiway system, apron facilities, the whole arrangement. By early 1944, the initial construction was complete. And in March of that year, Eastern Airlines touched down for the very first scheduled flight.
History, just like that, delivered right to Jefferson County's doorstep. But the airport wasn't just open for business travelers. During the war, U.S.
Marine Air Corps Dive Bomber Squadron No. 931 was using this very place as a base for advanced training. Pilot trainees would fly out over the Gulf of Mexico, off Sabine Pass, and practice their gunnery and divebombing on floating targets out on the water. Think about that picture for a moment — young pilots, roaring engines, the Gulf stretched out below them, and targets bobbing in the waves.
That's not a small county airport. That's a proving ground. The war ended, the years moved on, and the airport moved with them.
The fifties and sixties brought additional land, new buildings, more taxiways, runway lighting, an instrument landing system — all the makings of a facility keeping pace with a changing sky. Then in the early 1980s, you had Texas International, Southwest Airlines, Air Texana, and Metro Airlines all operating out of the same place at once, which is enough airline traffic to make any airport director lose a little sleep. A new terminal was completed during those improvements, and the airport kept on humming.
As chemical and petrochemical industries, paper and pulp manufacturing, and other area businesses grew up around southeast Texas, that airport became something more than a convenience — it became a lifeline for commerce. In 1999, County Commissioners made it official and changed the name from Jefferson County Airport to Southeast Texas Regional Airport, a title that fit the scope of what it had grown into. And then came 2005.
Hurricane Rita was bearing down, and the U.S. military used this airport as the site of one of the largest civilian airlifts in U.S. history — thousands of local residents with special medical needs evacuated right off that tarmac. Three runways that started out in 1942 as a wartime project, now doing some of the most urgent humanitarian work this country had ever seen from a civilian airfield. From floating targets in the Gulf to a lifeline in a hurricane — that airport has earned every foot of runway it's got.
What the marker says
Originally named Jefferson County Airport, this facility has served area residents since the World War II era. Jefferson County Commissioners purchased land to build the airport in 1941, and its development, which included three runways, a taxiway system and apron facilities, began the following year, with initial construction completed in early 1944. Eastern Airlines conducted the first scheduled flight in March of that year. During the war, the airport also served U.S. Marine Air Corps Dive Bomber Squadron No. 931 as a base for advanced training. Pilot trainees used floating targets in the Gulf of Mexico off Sabine Pass for gunnery and divebombing practice. The airport has accommodated developments in air technology through enhancement of its facilities. Improvements in the 1950s and 1960s included additional land, buildings and taxiways, and installation of runway lighting and an instrument landing system. In the early 1980s, when Texas International, Southwest Airlines, Air Texana and Metro Airlines all operated out of the airport, additional improvements were made, including completion of a new terminal. In 1999, County Commissioners approved a name change for the facility to the Southeast Texas Regional Airport. As chemical and petrochemical industries, paper and pulp manufacturing and other area businesses grew, the airport became an increasingly important transportation center. In 2005, it was the site of one of the largest civilian airlifts in U.S. History, when the U.S. military evacuated thousands of local residents with special medical needs during landfall of Hurricane Rita. Today, the airport continues to play a vital economic role in southeast Texas.