Station "X"

The Station X volunteers came from a depot with roots in the First World War. Flying at Kelly Field began on April 5, 1917, and the field was divided into Kelly Number One, for maintenance and supply, and Kelly Number Two, for flight training. Kelly Number One became Duncan Field, named for Maj. Thomas Duncan, killed in a 1923 air crash in Washington, D.C., and served as an aircraft repair depot. In World War II the fields were consolidated, pilot training moved elsewhere, and Kelly became home to the San Antonio Air Materiel Area, which modified and repaired aircraft.

What the plaque says

Station "X" During World War II, British officials were increasingly concerned with the large-scale need to maintain and repair the Royal Air Force's American-built aircraft. In April 1942, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) chose the existing Burtonwood Repair Depot (BRD) in England to be used as a centralized repair facility until the Eighth Air Force firmly established itself in the United Kingdom. The depot was subsequently transferred to American management, where it would be known as the 401st Air Depot, AAF Station 590. By July 1942, orders for the creation of a civilian service detachment reached the San Antonio Air Depot at Duncan Field (which consolidated with Kelly Field in 1943). Volunteers were sought to create a balanced team of aircraft specialists with a comprehensive mix of skills that could operate a repair depot facility. The 1,050 volunteers accepted were not told where their overseas station would be located. The site would be known as Station "X." The civilians, primarily Texans, left in four groups over five months, sailing across the U-boat-infested Atlantic Ocean and sent to Warrington, England, near BRD. They were soon working overtime with British civilians and eventually USAAF personnel. During the war, over 3,368 aero engines and 11,757 aircraft including 4,243 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, 4,381 P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and 1,004 P-38 lightning fighters were modified or overhauled. As the number of American military technicians increased by 1944, civilians of Station "X" began returning home, with some staying in England until 1945. Many went on to serve in the armed forces for the rest of the war. Their devotion to duty in keeping allied planes airborne during a crucial and vulnerable time of the war is best exemplified in their motto: "Keep 'Em Flying!" (2018)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Concepción — 4.8 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• King William Historic District — 5.0 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 5.2 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 5.3 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.

More markers nearby

• "Kelly No. 2" Flight Line — 0.3 mi
• Lydia Mendoza — 2.6 mi
• Moses Lapham — 2.9 mi
• Our Lady of the Lake University — 3.4 mi