Warbird Information Exchange

[quote="Cadillac_of_the_Sky"]I know there were a bunch in Florida during the war. I believe the majority were for fighter pilots. If anyone has more info on these I'd love to know. I'm in Florida for 6 more months, and really want to go visit some before I leave.

COTS[/quote]

COTS
I was stationed at Drew AFB as an instructor, today it is Tampa Intl

I also was at Hendricks AFB for B17 transition in Dec 1942 at Sebring , today it is an auto racing speedwy

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WW2 B17 pilot 99th B.G. N.Africa- Italy 12-15th A.F , 50 combat sorties, from July 1943 to Feb 1944

In Texas Victoria AFB is now the municipal airport and many of the original buildings are intact as well as the big hangars. Matagorda AF is pretty much intact as far as ramp,taxiways, and all of the runways, one is almost 12000 ft. Runways are all closed to aircraft. It is now a state park and accessible only by boat. A few of the base buildings are still intact as well as munitions bunkers.

Some of the other former airfields on the TX Gulf coast are :
La Porte
Palacious
Fulton County/Rockport
A large auxiliary ramp and field on Matagorda Peninsula
Clover Field/Pearland Regional
Davis AAF/ now South Shore Harbor
Hitchcock NAS ( Blimp Base) Big hangar is gone but the Corner supports are there. Several base structures on both sides of the hwy survive.

Best link for former Texas airfields is; http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX

Would love to know more about a little field that Brayton Flying Service operated for the USAAC at Cuero, Texas. I would especially love to see some photos of it in operation. My PT-19A was based there for the entire time it was in the service, and it would be neat to see the markings it wore back then. If anybody has any info on that one I would greatly appreciate it. (I've already looked at what Freeman had on it on his site.)

Thanks,

Steve

Steve, you might try the Cuero Chamber of Commerce. They might have something or point you to the right person. Cuero is pretty small so it might be easy.

Thanks Rick! Will give it a shot.

Steve

I know there has been several people who went to Pyote AAF recently but has anyone made the treck about 15 miles up FM 115 to the Winkler County Airport? I guess it was originally know as Wink Airport and was the site of an auxiliary air field for Hobbs Army Air Field, New Mexico. Using Google maps and Terraserver, you can make out all of the runways and some other information but was wondering if there is anything there worth looking at.

Some of the fields listed above:

Jacksonville AAF became Imeson Municipal Airport and when Jacksonville International was built, Imeson was taken over as an industrial park and little remains of the airfield there.

Pinecastle AAF became a large SAC base south of Orlando, and was renamed McCoy AFB, and later became what is now Orlando International Airport.

McDill AAF is now McDill AFB and is still an active ACC base and headquarters, US southern Command.

Tyndall Field is now Tyndall AFB, and is still an active base.


Walt

Man this is a neat subject. My dad was a WW2 P-51 driver. He trained in different places around the south (GA.AL, & I think FL). I will dig thru some of his old stuff & get some names & locations. I do know that after he came back from Europe that he was a P-51 instructor flying out of Venice FL, & I believe Door Field in Arcadia. Anyway I will look.
Best Regards
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Hi rkski,
How about some up here in the Republic of Maine
The biggest was Dow AAF/AFB/now Bangor Internaional/ANGB. A major stopover for aircraft leaving for ETO(Memphis Bell)
Houlton AAF- Where the SBC Helldivers were flown to and pushed across to Canada.
Presque Isle AAF/AFB- Another enroute base for ETO
Trenton AuxNAS- CAP flew Anti sub patrols
Sanford NAS-FAA TBM and F-4U training, Still has the original WWII Tower
Brunswick NAS-FAA TBM and F-4U Traning
Col. Rohr can fill in the missing ones as there are several
Don

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I never said the jokes were Good, they're just Free! You gets whatchyas pays for!

Hi Don,

There were so many Army Air Felds, Naval Air Stations, and Marine Corp Air Stations throughout the United States during the war, one can not do justice to them all. I look at all just for the information but concentrate on Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico because these I can get to in a relatively short period of time if I want to see or experience it for myself. I don't have as much time as I would like to devote to this subject.

Do or did you have something to do with C-141's?

rkski, take a run over to Hope , Ark. The airfield was built to support the ordnance proving ground. The main hangar is beautiful red brick and one corner is a nonused tower. The people there are really nice too.

I just hought you might like to add them to your list of "eventuallys", like the rest of us! As for the mighty Starlifter, I worked in Repair and Reclaimation(mechanic for the non-USAF) on both A and B model C-141s and C-5As At good old Altus AFB, Okla.
Don

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I never said the jokes were Good, they're just Free! You gets whatchyas pays for!

Indianapolis has Stout Field (now Army National Guard-38th Division). It still has the original tower and hangers, but the runways/taxiways are roads and parking lots. It stoped air operations in the late 50's/early 60's. It was used as Indy's first Municipal Airport and then taken over during WW2 to train c-47 transport and glider tug pilots.
PJ

Don,
I hope to get to some of my "eventuallys" some day. I am hoping to get to some more of the old bases here in the 5 state area I mentioned earlier. There are two air fields in Kansas I want to see next. They are two of the four air fields used for stagging the B-29 after they came off the assembly line and they are Great Bend AAF and Hays-Walker AAF. Pratt and Smokey Hill AAFs I have already visited.

I was a flight engineer on the 141 for 18 years of which the last 10 were spent at Altus, AFB. I was in the 57th squadron as an instructor and then went to the Basic Flight Engineer school as an instructor when it came up from Sheppard, AFB.

Sounds great. I just may have to take a ride over there in the near future.