JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Military and community city leaders attended the San Antonio Historical Marker Station "X" dedication at Port San Antonio May 21.
The marker is located across the parking lot that is now the home of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology at Port San Antonio.
“The new marker gives added recognition to the hundreds of brave and talented volunteers of Station X,” said Jim Perschbach, Port San Antonio president and CEO. “For more than a century, this has been a place where chapters in the history of flight have been written, with many more to come.
“The women and men — uniformed and civilians — who continue growing JBSA-Kelly Field as a world-class center of aerospace excellence will take special pride that they are the latest generation in a long-standing history where our homegrown talent has made a big impact for our nation’s defenders at home and our allies around the world,” Perschbach added.
Andrew Morrison, Lord Dunrossil, Honorary Consul of the United Kingdom, one of the guest speakers, knew of World War II from his parent’s experiences that affected them during their own childhood. Lord Dunrossil recalls that his father told him how critical it was for Britain to survive and ultimately win the war against Germany.
“The greatest example is the cooperation between two nations because we have the same values and we go shoulder to shoulder to defend those values,” Morrison said. “It is wonderful to have the Station X marker here to bear witness to the friendship that has been so important to us over the years.”
Station "X" originated when British and American officials were concerned with increased critical maintenance and repair needs that would maintain Allied planes as America entered the conflict in Europe during WWII. Personnel were sent to Europe to keep aircraft flying as the U.S. Army Air Forces trained those who would eventually perform that task.
In July 1942, a civilian service detachment was instituted at the San Antonio Air Depot at Duncan Field (which consolidated with Kelly Field in 1943). Civilian volunteers established a team of aircraft specialists and a mixture of individuals who could operate a repair depot facility in the early stages of the war.
“They were told they would be going overseas, but not where…so the site became known as Station X,” said guest speaker Kent Knudson, son of CG Knudson, a member of Station “X.”
“Once the volunteers, mainly Texans, arrived in Liverpool, England, they were informed where they were as they arrived on the docks,” Knudson added. “They were soon sent to Burtonwood Repair Depot in nearby Warrington, where the USAAF had agreed to augment an existing Royal Air Force repair facility.”
Warrington would be the first town in the United Kingdom to receive a large contingent of American personnel in what would be called the “Friendly Invasion” of the isles.
“Events like these allow us to take a step back and reflect on what people are capable of when we see what they have done in the past," said Brig. Gen. Russell Driggers, 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio commander. "We reflect on the maintainers that came from Texas that supported the war effort in building, rebuilding, fixing and refurbishing thousands of bombers and fighters. It's amazing what can happen when people come together for a common purpose. It is said there is nothing stronger than a heart of a volunteer.”
Once there, the volunteers established a B-17 repair facility. Frederick W. Wendt served as foreman and assistant to the superintendent, integrating the American and British personnel to work on the aircraft, their engines, their radios, and their weaponry.
During the war, more than 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.
Burtonwood would be destined to become the greatest of the American overseas depots in the European Theater of Operations, Knudson said.
These 1,050 civilian volunteers were devoted to their duty in keeping Allied planes airborne during a crucial and vulnerable time of the war, living up to their motto: "Keeping 'Em Flying!"
“As aircraft were maintained and repaired at Burtonwood and later sent across the English Channel on their missions, the work of the men of Station X were right beside those pilots in the cockpit and their crews all the way," Knudson said. “Airpower would allow Franklin Roosevelt to declare by 1944, that Nazi Germany was a ‘fortress without a roof.’ Victory would come a year later. It’s a great story from an amazing generation.”