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History of Foster Field
Foster Field was located 6 miles east-northeast of Victoria, Texas.
Foster Field observed its second birthday August 12, 1943. The first contingent of soldiers arrived August 12, 1941, to activate the advanced fighter pilot training school where aviation cadets complete their training and win their "wings."
Actual construction work on the field, which lies east of the thriving community of Victoria, Texas, began early in 1941, but it was not until August that personnel began arriving in large numbers. Nearly every department was manned a month later.
The field's first commanding officer, Colonel Warren R. Carter, now a Brigadier General, headed the base until June 30, 1942, when he was transferred to the Flying Training Command. His successor was Colonel H. H. Van Auken, present commandant, who was formerly director of training.
An integral part of aviation cadet training at Foster Field is aerial gunnery. Classroom instruction and synthetic gunnery are completed at Foster, but the actual shooting takes place at the Matagorda Gunnery Ranges, sub-posts of the Foster Field command.
The gunnery bases, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles A. Miller, are located on Matagorda Island and Matagorda Peninsula, a few miles off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
A Central Instructors' School for Fixed Gunnery is now in operation at Matagorda Peninsula.
Flying was initiated at Foster Field in October, 1941, with Aviation Cadet Class 41-I. The class was graduated five days after Pearl Harbor. Since that time, Foster Field has been turning over fighter pilots to Uncle Sam at regularly scheduled intervals in keeping with the program of the Gulf Coast Training Center, which is a part of the vast Flying Training Command. Foster Field is the oldest single-engine advanced training school in the training center.
Known unofficially for many months as Victoria Field, the air base received its official title on January 15, 1942, and on February 22, Foster Field was dedicated in memory of the late First Lieutenant Arthur L. Foster, air corps instructor who was killed in a crash at Brooks Field in 1925. Arthur L. Foster, Jr., son of the man for whom the field was named, received his "wings" and commission here in the spring of 1942.
Foster Field grew by leaps and bounds during 1942. New buildings were erected, sidewalks were laid, and grounds landscaped. Its rows of spotless white buildings, surrounded by well-kept lawns, shrubs and flower beds, form an attractive pattern on the Texas prairie land.
An important date at the field this yer was Saturday, May 15, when the first contingent of WAACs--now WAC--arrived. Many of these feminine soldiers now work in jobs formerly held by men, relieving able-bodied soldiers for jobs in combat zones.
Foster Field's fighter pilot training program has paid off big dividends to Uncle Sam and the Allies in their fight to crush the Axis. Reports from far-reaching battle fronts reveal many Foster graduates have won citations for their heroism and capability.
Source: Transcribed from Army Air Forces Collection, "Foster Field: Class 43-G and 43-H, Foster Field, Victoria, Texas" (item 000485), AAF Collection, http://AAFCollection.info/items/list.php?item=000485 (accessed 23 January 2014), 1943, page 6.
Source: Location and map from Wikipedia contributors, "Foster Air Force Base," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foster_Air_Force_Base&oldid=577547213 (accessed January 23, 2014).
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Image | Locations | TitleFF MM PP | |
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1 | Foster Field; Victoria, Texas, USA |
Fighter Training Conference Dinner menu at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. |
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2 | Foster Field; Victoria, Texas, USA Matagorda Gunnery Ranges; Matagorda Island, Texas, USA Port O'Connor, Texas, USA |
Foster Field Class book for advanced pilot classes 43-G and 43-H at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. Advanced Single Engine Flying Training School. |
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3 | Matagorda Gunnery Ranges; Matagorda Island, Texas, USA Port O'Connor, Texas, USA Foster Field; Victoria, Texas, USA |
Matagorda Gunnery Ranges, Matagorda Island, Texas Class book for gunnery training squadrons at the Matagorda Gunnery Ranges, and Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. |
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4 | Foster Field; Victoria, Texas, USA |
Photograph of Fighter Training Unit Photograph of 8th Fighter Unit, 2nd Training Group, Class 43-I, at Foster Field, Victoria, Texas. |
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Collection: A group of related items. |
Quick Link: https://aafcollection.info/items/list.php?site=FOSTER
Curator: Mike Voisin
All items in the Army Air Forces Collection are licensed by Mike Voisin under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |