Site of Marfa Army Air Field

Marfa and Alpine each voted $10,000 in bonds to buy the 2,750-acre site from T. G. Hendrick of Abilene at $6.50 an acre, then leased it to the War Department for twenty-five years at a dollar a year. The Class A field cost $2,281,794 and trained cadets in the Cessna AT-17, a step from single-engine to multi-engine flying. The first cadets arrived December 5, 1942, and won their wings on February 12, 1943; a class finished each month until May 1945. Graduations were often public, with aerial shows and a dance.

What the plaque says

Site of Marfa Army Air Field During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) established a significant number of training airfields across the state of Texas. The USAAF Western Flying Training Command selected Marfa as the site for an advanced multi-engine flying school in 1942. Due to an initial lack of supplies and properly trained personnel, the USAAF struggled at first to establish the command effectively and to provide adequate housing for those who served here. The airfield had four hangars, five runways and a unique angled parking apron. There were also several auxiliary fields in the area. Support personnel here included a Women's Army Corps unit established in 1943 and African American troops, assigned primarily to motor pool duties. Trainees included allied Chinese flying cadets, the first class arriving in September 1944. After Germany surrendered in May 1945, the USAAF considered deactivating Marfa Army Air Field and placed the installation on standby status. However, the need for additional transport aircraft in the Pacific campaign temporarily extended the mission of the airfield. In June 1945, the USAAF placed the airfield in the Troop Carrier Command as home of the 818th Army Air Forces Base. The USAAF formally deactivated the base in September 1945, and the gradual exodus of the military had a devastating impact on Marfa. The military sold off buildings, many later used for civilian purposes in Marfa, Alpine and other locales. Today, all that remains of the once impressive site are foundations, runways and the memories of those who proudly supported the airfield during the war. Texas in World War II - 2007

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — steps away
  The roadside viewing area on US 90 nine miles east of Marfa, where people gather after dark to watch the horizon toward the Chinati Mountains for the Marfa lights.
• Presidio County Courthouse — 8.8 mi
  Marfa's domed courthouse of 1886, a Second Empire landmark finished in time for a New Year's ball, its statue of Justice still missing the scales someone shot away.
• Chinati Foundation — 8.8 mi
  Donald Judd's museum on the grounds of old Fort D. A. Russell in Marfa, where art, buildings and land are meant to be seen together, by guided tour.
• Museum of the Big Bend — 15 mi
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.

More markers nearby

• Marfa Lights — steps away
• Paisano Pass — 3.9 mi
• Marfa Stockyards — 7.6 mi
• Presidio County — 7.7 mi