Foster Army Air Field

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Foster Field was an Army Air Forces base located six miles northeast of Victoria, Texas. It was established in 1941 as an advanced single-engine flying school for fighter pilots. It closed in December 1958 and later became the site of Victoria Regional Airport.

[edit] History

Originally known as Victoria Field, it was renamed in 1942 in memory of Lt. Arthur L. Foster, a United States Army Air Corps instructor killed in a crash at Brooks Field in 1925. Built at a cost of over $4 million, it was considered a major economic asset to the city of Victoria.

The first class of cadets served under Lt. Col. Warren R. Carter. Cadets used the North American AT-6 "Texan" and Curtiss P-40 trainers to drill in aerial gunnery, though actual practice took place on ranges located on Matagorda Island and Matagorda Peninsula.

After World War II, Foster Field was deactivated and the site was returned to its private owners.

The Air Force retained a recapture right which it exercised here and at many other former bases to accommodate the Korean War training surge. Foster Field was designated Foster Air Force Base on an inactive status on September 1, 1952, by Department of the Air Force General Order No. 38 of August 29, 1952. The base was activated on January 1, 1953 by Department of the Air Force General Order No. 33 of August 20, 1953.

In 1954, Foster AFB became the location of Headquarters Nineteenth Air Force.

On August 28, 1957, despite the fact that President Dwight D. Eisenhower appropriated funds for new construction at the base, the base was ordered closed by the spring of 1959 with the resident 450th and 322nd Day Fighter Wings to inactivate.

At great cost to the local economy, the base closed in December 1958. It was formally inactivated on January 1, 1959 by Department of the Air Force General Order No. 7 of February 9, 1959.

In 2004 it is Victoria Regional Airport.