Military Aviation in Val Verde County

When the base reopened in 1952, its first job was the Korean War. In October the 3645th Flying Training Wing began turning new pilots into combat replacements, teaching bombing and gunnery in F-80 Shooting Stars, F-84 Thunderjets and T-33s, and soon in T-33s alone. In September 1955 Laughlin traded missions with Williams Air Force Base in Arizona and took up single-engine pilot training. Undergraduate pilot training returned in October 1961, with about half the student load moved from Laredo Air Force Base. Today the base flies T-6A Texan II, T-38C Talon and T-1A Jayhawk trainers.

What the plaque says

Military Aviation in Val Verde County In 1911, eight years after the Wright Brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Galbraith Perry Rodgers landed his plane at Del Rio while on the first transcontinental flight across the United State. The arrival of a plane in Del Rio was a major event then, but it became a common sight in later years. During World War I, the town was a center of aerial patrols along the United State-Mexico Border. In 1919 planes were dispatched to the area in reaction to Pancho Villa's border raids. One pilot stationed here to fly border patrols was Lt. James H. Doolittle, who later gained international attention in World War II. In the 1940s Del Rio was chosen as the site of an Air Base because of the flat terrain and the mild climate. Opened as the first B-26 bombardier school, Laughlin Air Force Base was named in honor of Lt. Jack T. Laughlin, the first pilot from Del Rio killed in action in World War II. Later a pilot training school, it closed after the war. In 1952, through the efforts of local residents, it was reopened. Laughlin has been utilized for Astronaut Training, Strategic Air Command U-2 reconnaissance missions, the development of Air Training Command's undergraduate pilot training mission, and other important innovations. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe Creek — 5.4 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Val Verde Winery — 6.0 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 6.1 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 13 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Lt. Jack T. Laughlin — steps away
• Rudolf Anderson, Jr. — steps away
• Laughlin Army Air Field — steps away
• San Felipe Independent School District — 5.0 mi