Laredo Air Force Base
Near Laredo, Texas
The flat, clear skies over Laredo made it ideal for training pilots, and the Army recognized that early. During World War One, when Kelly Field in San Antonio reached its capacity, the Army established an auxiliary landing field here north of Fort McIntosh. The site went quiet after that war, but as the nation mobilized again, an Army air field opened here in nineteen forty-two.
Through World War Two, the base trained thousands of airmen, mainly in aerial gunnery, taking advantage of the near-perfect flying weather along the Rio Grande. The Cold War brought jet aircraft and a new mission: Laredo Air Force Base became one of the premier advanced pilot training centers in the United States Air Force. At its peak it hosted supersonic jet trainers and graduated aviators who flew in Korea and Vietnam.
The base closed in nineteen seventy-three, but its runways became Laredo International Airport, the infrastructure of war repurposed for commerce.
