The Korean War Brings the Jet Age to Foster Field. Henry Wolff, Jr. Victoria Advocate Journalist (retired)

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1 KOREAN WAR CONFERENCE: Commemorating the 60 th Anniversary June 24-26, 2010 Victoria, Texas Hosted by: Victoria College / University of Houston-Victoria Library The Korean War Brings the Jet Age to Foster Field Henry Wolff, Jr. Victoria Advocate Journalist (retired) This submitted paper is formatted for the Web

2 Wolff 1 The jet age came to Victoria on August 2, 1951 with an announcement that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been authorized to begin the rehabilitation of Foster Field to serve as a single engine jet training school for the Korean War. The field, located some six miles northeast of Victoria and known today as Victoria Regional Airport, had served during World War II as an advanced fighter pilot training school. After the Korean War began in late June 1950 there was a need for additional facilities for training pilots for the new jet age conflict. Student pilots at Foster Air Force Base would receive three months of training in propeller-driven North American T-28 Trojans and three months in the Lockheed T-33 jet known as the Shooting Star.

3 Wolff 2 T-28 Trojan T-33 Shooting Stars Established as Victoria Army Airfield on May 15, 1941, the field was named on Jan. 15, 1942 in memory of Lt. Arthur L. Foster, a U.S. Army Air Corps instructor killed in a crash at Brooks Field, San Antonio, in 1925.

4 Wolff 3 Lt. Arthur L. Foster Victoria Army Airfield Foster s son, Arthur Jr., would receive his wings and commission at Victoria in the spring of A local funding campaign had raised $17,000 to locate the base at Victoria with the government leasing land from local owners. Throughout the long war the sounds of AT-6 Texans, P-40s and other aircraft from Foster Field and Aloe Field the latter having been moved from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Victoria in January could be heard overhead as hundreds of pilots were being trained at the two fields.

5 Wolff 4 Formation over Guadalupe River Soon after the war ended, both fields were deactivated with Aloe becoming the county airport and Foster Field being returned to the local landowners.

6 Wolff 5 First indications there might be some local interest in the reactivation of Foster Field was hinted at in an article in the Victoria Advocate on July 9, 1950, only days after North Korea s Soviet-made tanks had crossed the 38th parallel invading South Korea and President Truman s ordering of American aid and naval units to support South Korea in the so-called police action that would become more appropriately known as the Korean War. The Advocate indicated there were concerns, however, that it would be difficult to reactivate either of the two local airfields, the Army s Camp Hulen at Palacios, the Matagorda Peninsula bombing range, or the adjunct base from World War II on Matagorda Island that was still in use at the time as a recreational area for the 27th Fighter Wing headquartered in Austin. Foster Field is almost completely dismantled, the newspaper noted. Only the runways and a few buildings are intact. By early January 1951, however, there was growing interest in the possibility of Foster Field being reactivated with the local Chamber of Commerce holding a general meeting at the Uptown Theater. The meeting would permit a sounding-out of sentiments concerning the idea, the newspaper noted, and

7 Wolff 6 would assist the chamber s aviation committee in a scheduled conference with Air Force, Corps of Engineers, Civil Aeronautics Administration, city and county officials. Increased international tension and the critical military situation in Korea have led to increasing speculation in Victoria on possible interest of the Air Force in putting the Foster base into use again for flight training, the Advocate noted on January 9. City Ready to Back Foster Reactivation would be the headline the next day, it being noted that Victorians, by a big majority, are ready for the Air Force to reactivate Foster Field. A resolution had been drafted pledging local support that would be presented to the government officials. On January 11, 1951, a bold headline noted that Victoria May Get Jet Training Base and that it would be an advanced flying school for jet fighter pilots.

8 Wolff 7 During this time there were many articles about the war in the newspaper and Congress was being urged to draft 18-year-olds for service to build up the nation s fighting forces. Six months later in mid-june the landowners were given a 45-day notice on the sale of the property by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the land involving 1,146 acres from the Buhler Estate and 230 acres from the O Connor-Braman family with $407,500 being authorized for purchase of the property. In all, Congress was being asked to appropriate some $11 million for the reactivation of Foster Field. On June 21, 1951, the Advocate noted that most Victorians continued to favor the reactivation. I think it will be a good thing for everybody, commented Mayor H. W. Griffith. I think it will be a shot in the arm from a business standpoint and I think there is a possibility we will get a permanent field here. When we had two fields here before, he further noted, we had as fine a group of young people as you could find anywhere. They added to our town, they added to our schools, they added to our churches and they added to everything else. On August 2, the headline read, Work Ordered on Foster Field Rehabilitation.

9 Wolff 8 Col. E.I. Davis, Galveston district engineer, announced that the Corps of Engineers had been authorized to begin the work and had received directives authorizing more than a million dollars worth of installations to begin the process. A Flying Training Air Force and Corps of Engineers party headed by Major Gen. Warren R. Carter of Waco, commanding general of FTAF, had visited Victoria in July to inquire into housing and other problems likely to be involved with the reactivation. Carter had been the first commander of Foster Field during World War II. On September 15, the Advocate announced a bill authorizing $11,082,800 for Foster Field had been approved by a conference committee of the U.S. House and Senate, including $5,864,178 for construction of pavements, fuel storage, land, housing, shops and training facilities. The following day, beneath a banner headline -- Foster Field Use Due By Spring -- it was announced that plans had been made for the reconstruction of the field to begin in late December and the Air Force expected to be using it by early spring.

10 Wolff 9 The base would be slightly larger than during World War II to accommodate longer runways for the jet aircraft. Personnel would number approximately 3,500, including 2,300 permanent officers and airmen, 600 permanent civilian employees, and between 500 and 600 cadets and student officers. On May 8, 1952, the Victoria Advocate noted that Lt. Col. Harry L. Downing had announced the first Foster cadre of cadets was to begin their basic flight training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo in the prop-driven T-6 Texans, the same aircraft that so many World War II pilots had gone through during their advanced training at Foster Field. Downing, acting as Foster executive officer, was to be the training group commander at the reactivated field. He was no stranger to Victoria having graduated from Foster Field himself in February of The flight training at San Angelo began only about eight months before President Dwight David Eisenhower visited Korea in December 1952 following his election and some 15 months before a truce agreement was signed on July 26, 1953, ending the hostilities, though without an official end to the war to this day.

11 Wolff 10 In the meantime, preparations for the rehabilitation of Foster Field had moved forward with the first contracts being awarded by the Corps of Engineers in the mount of $2,703,994 in early June of On Dec. 12, 1952, the first T-33 jets began arriving at Foster Field where new cadets, with exception of a more advanced first class, would receive three months training in the propeller-driven T- 28s before three months in the jets. On Jan. 5, 1953, the first class of 114 cadets arrived at Foster Air Force Base. The cadets will go directly into jet training, the Advocate announced, and are scheduled to

12 Wolff 11 graduate in three months. It was noted that the first class had completed their T-28 training at other bases and that 38 T-33s were already at Foster Field for training purposes with 16 more due to arrive. There were also a number of T-28s that were ready for the next class to arrive for three months training in the T-28s and three months in T-33s. A peak load of 470 cadets was anticipated. From August 1952 until graduation on March 2, 1953, Ben Burdine of Victoria recalls having gone through jet pilot training at a similar base in Laredo. Formerly of Freer, he would be stationed at Foster Air Force Base later after the Korean War when it was a part of the Tactical Air Command and is a retired chairman of the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Victoria College. Like the cadets at Foster AFB, by the time he graduated and went on to more specialized training he recalls cadets were given some choice if they wanted to go into fighter training or other aircraft. Those assigned to Korea would be too late for combat, however. While Burdine was in San Francisco waiting to go to Korea, the truce had already been signed, he arriving there in early August 1953.

13 Wolff 12 The first class at Victoria was graduated on March 16, 1953, with the Advocate noting that a holiday spirit prevailed. A total of 108 cadets received their commissions, the newspaper noted. Thirtytwo received their wings as jet pilots and the rest will get their wings in two and four-week intervals in keeping with Air Force policy of staggering numbers of pilots going on to advanced gunnery school. The first class included one cadet from Victoria County, James O. Henry, son of Mr. and Mrs. Otis Henry of Nursery. There was another cadet from Victoria in the second class when 53 were

14 Wolff 13 commissioned in graduation ceremonies on May 1, 1953, he being Hugh O. Wallace, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Wallace of Victoria. Under the staggered program for being awarded their wings, Wallace was to receive his on May 29. There would be only about three months before the ceasefire. There had been some sad news for the community earlier in the year. First Lt. Richard L. Corky Goodman was killed when his jet fighter exploded in mid-air during his 100th combat mission over Korea. Said to have been Victoria s first jet pilot, he had been scheduled to return home following that mission. On Dec. 10, 1952, the Advocate had featured Goodman in a front page story and photograph of him in the cockpit of an F-84 Thunderjet talking to his crew chief, A/2C Robert E. Byrne, a Patti Welder High School and Victoria Junior College classmate. Goodman had named his airplane Dawn s Patrol in honor of his wife, Dudley Dawn. A new academic building at Foster AFB was dedicated in early February 1954 in honor of Goodman. It is highly fitting that the Academic Building should be so dedicated to the Victoria hero, the Advocate stated in announcing the honor, quoting the base commander, Col. C.D. Sonnkalb. Lt. Goodman s life as an officer and pilot stands out as an example most worthy of emulation. His devotion to

15 Wolff 14 flag and county, his keen sense of duty, and his love for the United States Air Force will live after him and will continue to serve as a constant inspiration to those in uniform. The next to last class of cadets at Foster AFB was graduated on May 12, 1954 with 61 having completed training, including one student officer, 18 foreign students and 42 aviation cadets. Each received their wings and commission. The last class would graduate on June 10, with the Advocate noting that it would be the 11 th class and that after a short transitional period Foster AFB would become a part of the Tactical Air Command. There were 44 students in the final class, bringing to 866 the number of graduates since the base became operational in January Student pilots had flown a total of some 99,574 hours, 37,840 in T-28 conventional trainers and 61,734 in T-33 jets. The last class included 31 students from the United States, five from France, three from the Netherlands, and five from Turkey.

16 Wolff 15 The Advocate published photographs of First Lt. Necati Ozdeniz of Turkey with his instructor Capt. Walter R. Renfro after his final training flight, also of Johannes A. Van Den Bosch of the Netherlands, the final student to receive a diploma and wings under the jet pilot training program at Foster Field. Ozdeniz and Van Den Bosch were among many foreign cadets who were trained to fly jets at Victoria after the base was reactivated for the Korean War. The big news at the end of the month was the transfer of Foster Air Force Base from the Air Training Command to the Tactical Air Command with ceremonies on June 31 formalizing the agreement. Command would be transferred from Col. Sonnkalb to Col. Frank L. Dunn. Maj. Gen. Edward J. Timberlake, commander of the Ninth Air Force, would be a special guest.

17 Wolff 16 After tomorrow, the Advocate reported on June 30, Foster will shelter two fighter-bomber groups of F-86-F s, trained to serve on TAC missions were directed. As hoped for when local civic leaders had sought reactivation of the old World War II flying field, Foster Air Force Base was now considered a permanent military installation and would continue to make Victoria a military town for another 4 ½ years before being closed for a second and final time. The 450 th Fighter-Bomber Wing was activated on July 1 with four operational squadrons. A second group, the 322 nd was assigned under command of the 450 th with three squadrons, taking over the

18 Wolff 17 training mission at the base. Personnel increased to some 6,000 with the mission being to maintain tactical proficiency for combat operations and to be prepared for overseas deployment as part of the Ninth Air Force. The new North American F-100 Super Sabre jets began arriving in early 1955, replacing the F- 86s, with the 450 th being the first operational TAC wing to receive the F-100s. The wing was redesignated the 450 th Fighter-Day Wing on March 8, On July 8, 1955, Foster AFB became the headquarters for the new 19th Air Force. The base was the control center for all tactical aviation in the western half of the United States with Brigadier Gen. Henry Vicellio in command. It was also in 1955 that Col. Carlos M. Talbott, commander of the 322 nd Fighter Day Group, won the California to Pennsylvania Bendix trophy race with a speed averaging miles per hour.

19 Wolff 18 The following year Foster s 19 th Air Force carried out the first deployment of a composite air strike force from this country to Europe in a training exercise. Participating in the annual NATO exercise designated Whipsaw and utilizing in-flight refueling,

20 Wolff 19 the strike force crossed the Atlantic non-stop to North Africa and proceeded to destinations in France, Germany and Italy. Three F-100s also accomplished a TAC first in April of 1957 by flying a non-stop, round-trip training mission to Panama to strike aggressor forces in the Canal Zone. The 19 th Air Force would also respond to the 1958 Lebanon crisis. That July the 450th was re-designated as the 450 th Tactical Fighter Wing during an Air Force worldwide reorganization. Almost a year before, on Aug. 28, 1957, the Air Force had suddenly announced that Foster AFB would be closed in the near future, catching the community by complete surprise. The announcement came on the same day that President Eisenhower had signed an appropriations bill carrying $1,416,000 in military construction funds for the base. Local efforts to save the field failed and by the time of a final retreat ceremony on Dec. 3, 1958 the base commander, Col. Edmund F. Freeman, announced that only one officer and a caretaker crew of 25 civilians would remain at the end of the month to complete the deactivation.

21 Wolff 20 It was reported that a lone C-47 transport plane was the last to leave, a fitting ending for a base that had served through World War II, into the jet age during Korea, and well into the Cold War. The base would be deeded by the General Services Administration in the summer of 1960 to Victoria County in exchange for Aloe Field that had become the county airport after World War II. Aloe was then sold to private investors and is an industrial area today. At the Victoria Regional Airport of today, many of the structures from the jet age Foster Air Force Base and a small number from the World War II era Foster Field remain as reminders of the community s proud heritage as a military town. Military aircraft still use the airport on occasion with the pilots landing and taking off where so many had before then, just like those in the first class at Foster Field that was graduated from the advanced flying school five days short of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. There were the hundreds that would follow to fly the skies over Europe and the Pacific. Then there were the 866 cadets

22 Wolff 21 that completed jet training with the Korean War fortunately coming to a truce before they would fly there in combat, though for some there would be other skirmishes. They were followed by the jet jockeys of the Tactical Air Command who helped to keep our country safe during the Cold War. That all happened on a stretch of flatland that is more than just another airport.