Dodd Army Airfield was an airfield located within the current boundaries of Fort Sam Houston in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. Dodd Field includes the area bounded on the north by Rittiman Road, on the west by Harry Wurzbach Memorial Highway, on the south by Winans (formerly Dashiell) Road and on the east by the

Fort Sam Houston Fort Sam Houston is a United States Army, U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas. "Fort Sam Houston, TX • About Fort Sam Houston" (overview), US Army, 2007, webpageSH-Army. Known colloquially as "Fort Sam", it is named for the first president o ...

Reservation boundary.

History

Known originally as Remount Station #1, the area was used as a

U.S. Army Remount Service A part of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army Remount Service provided horses (and later mules and dogs) as remounts to U.S. Army units. Evolving from both the Remount Service of the Quartermaster Corps and a general horse-breeding program und ...

depot which supported the cavalry troops assigned to Fort Sam Houston. Aviation started at Dodd Field about 1915, and continued through the early years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Most of the first aircraft assigned to the Army were based here with the

1st Aero Squadron First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

when it transferred from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1915. The squadron deployed in support of the 1916–1917 Punitive Expedition into Mexico from the Remount Station. On 1 November 1916, the 3d Aero Squadron activated there and flew the

Curtiss JN-4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" is a series of biplanes built by the Glenn Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft ...

. The 3d departed the Remount on 5 April 1917 to establish a new airfield to the southwest of San Antonio. This new field became Kelly Field by the summer of 1917. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the aerodrome served as a supply depot. Aviation returned to the airfield in June 1925, when the 12th Observation Squadron transferred there to support the 2d Division. On 10 May 1928, the field was designated Dodd Field in War Department General Order Number 5. It was named in honor of Colonel Townsend Foster Dodd, Air Service, who was killed in an aircraft accident on October 5, 1919 at Bustleton Field near Philadelphia. At the time, he was serving as Commander of

Langley Field Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Langley Wakeman Collyer (1885–1947), one ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The 12th remained at Dodd until 31 October 1931 when the squadron transferred to Brooks Field, south of San Antonio. In the 1930s, the Coast Guard briefly used Dodd for air support, and Kelly used the field to train bombardiers. During

, the 63d Troop Carrier Group based

C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

transport aircraft at Dodd Army Airfield from September though November 1942. The departure of the 63d ended flying operations at Dodd. In 1943, a prisoner of war camp was established there, and it held Axis POWs until 1946. In 1949, Dodd was converted into a government housing area for Army personnel stationed at Ft. Sam Houston. The area eventually was absorbed into Fort Sam Houston.

References

* * {{Cite web , last=Freeman , first=Paul , date=November 22, 2021 , title=Texas: Northeastern San Antonio area , url=https://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_SanAntonioNE.htm , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707003022/http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_SanAntonioNE.htm , archive-date=2022-07-07 , website=

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields is a website detailing information and first hand memories about airports in the United States which are no longer in operation, or are rarely used. The website was started by Paul Freeman in 1999 as he had d ...

External links

*An extensive history can be found on th
Fort Sam Houston website
Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces I Troop Carrier Command Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Texas Airports in Texas Military history of San Antonio 1911 establishments in Texas 1945 disestablishments in Texas Joint Base San Antonio

History

See also

References

External links