Military City U.S.A. remembers vital flight
Web Posted: 03/03/2006 12:00 AM CST
Sig Christenson
Express-News Military Writer
The flight over Fort Sam Houston lasted just seven minutes, about the time it takes for a commercial jet to get high enough for passengers to turn on their laptop computers.
But the six orbits 1st Lt. Benjamin Foulois made low and slow over Fort Sam's sprawling parade field on March 2, 1910, changed everything for San Antonio, the nation and the world.
It was America's first successful military flight. On a personal note, the day marked Foulois' first solo, first landing and first crash. Emerging from it unhurt, he then invented the seat belt.
"With a great amount of courage and determination, Lt. Benjamin Foulois left the shackles of this earth," Gen. William R. Looney III, head of the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB, said Thursday during a ceremony commemorating the 96th anniversary of Foulois' flight. "And so began military aviation."
So too began a new era for San Antonio. The birth of Military City, U.S.A., came after Foulois had logged 54 minutes as an observer next to Wilbur Wright, who flew the plane. Foulois' experimental flights in a Wright Flyer dubbed Aeroplane No. 1 delivered dramatic change to the Alamo City.
John Davenport/Express-News
Air Force Gen. William R. Looney III and Lt. Col. Sandra Miarecki bow their heads after a wreath-laying ceremony honoring Lt. Benjamin Foulois and his pioneer flights at Fort Sam Houston on Thursday. These flight tests in a Wright biplane demonstrated the value of the airplane as a military weapon.
Within a decade there were two new flight training installations here, Kelly and Brooks, followed later by Randolph and Lackland AFB.
Those bases and Fort Sam turned a dusty backwater town into a hub of military activity, a pillar of the city's economy. The military contributed $5 billion in 2004, ranking it No. 3 behind tourism and health care-bioscience research, said Bill Mock, vice president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
The ascent of the military began in obscurity. Foulois flew as slowly as 30 mph on his maiden voyage, and made three more flights that day before a fuel pipe cracked and he crash-landed. Eight years later, recruits and their biplanes were buzzing over Kelly and Brooks fields. Randolph Field opened in 1930 and soon became known as the "West Point of the Air."
A city that had served as a way station for many Army legends, among them Robert E. Lee and Dwight D. Eisenhower, produced some of its most memorable pilots, including Charles Lindbergh and Jimmy Doolittle.
Small fields became big bases that would see makeovers in their missions. Kelly evolved into a depot where thousands of Hispanics found upward mobility as aircraft workers. Brooks became an Air Force research hub. Both were victims of base closure rounds, but carry on as public-private ventures.
The crowd broke into applause after a pair of Stearman biplanes flown by Jim Ebell and Mickey Chadwell flew gracefully over the grounds, banked right and made a long lazy eight, looping around the old Brooke Army Medical Center complex before making one final pass.
Retired Army Col. Stewart Wyland asked the spectators to imagine that four vintage helicopters, one of them a CH-47 Chinook, were on the parade field. The choppers weren't there because their crews have either gone to war or are preparing to deploy.
"From the humble beginnings here in 1910, the U.S. military — Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines — has become the dominant air power in the world," said Wyland, 55, of San Antonio.
"This created the military city of San Antonio," said Looney, who called his service "a force unlike none other," ready to fight anywhere, at any moment. "We've been embraced by the city and by the citizens of San Antonio, and we thrive here."
--------------------------------------- ... s-news.net
Sounds like that cat had a exciting day!
Robbie
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
