JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Service members and civilians from Joint Base San Antonio gathered at the JBSA-Fort Sam Houston MacArthur Parade Field Monday to observe the 105th anniversary of military aviation.
In 1910, then-Army Lt. Benjamin Foulois became the first person to make a military flight, from a military facility, of a government owned plane flown by a military-trained pilot.
In December 1909, Foulois was sent to San Antonio from Washington, D.C., to assemble a new aircraft, designated Signal Corps No. 1, and learn how to fly. After 54 minutes of instruction from Wilbur Wright and a few hours as a passenger, Foulois, having never flown solo or attempted a landing, taught himself to fly.
Through trial and error, attention to detail, personal risk and devotion to duty; military aviation was born.
"An aviator, in their heart, is birthed from the very beginning," Army Lt. Gen. Perry Wiggins, Army North (Fifth Army) commander and JBSA-Fort Sam Houston and JBSA-Camp Bullis senior Army commander, said. "He is the guy out with a red wagon, when everyone else was afraid to get in and go down the steep hill; he was the first one to raise his hand and get in it and ride it all the way down to the bottom. If he didn't make it, he brought in his older brother to fix the wheels he broke and he jumped back in and did it again. That is the Foulois that we are here to learn about today."
Foulois was able to fly the 30-horse power, two-propeller biplane a total of seven and a half minutes, and attained a height of 200 feet, circling the field at a speed of 30 mph.
"To me, when you read about the pioneers of aviation, one thing I realize is how far we have come," Wiggins said. "The expectation that it is safer to fly in an airplane than it is to drive in a car is due to the people right here in this audience and the people you serve with and for every day. The people we should remember today are those that picked up the challenge and mantle of responsibility and marched on after Foulois, and took aviation to where it is today."
The innovations in flying training and flight safety made by Foulois still affect how the Air Force operates today.
"Today, the 12th Flying Training Wing is the source of America's air power; we train the instructor pilots that go out and train the rest of the pilots in the Air Force," Col. David Drichta, 12th Operations Group commander at JBSA-Randolph, said.
"We also have the initial pipeline for remotely piloted aircraft as well as introduction to fighter fundamentals. That source of America's air power is the execution today of what happened on this day back in 1910 with Lt. Foulois. If you look back at the birth of aviation, we have instruction from 105 years ago continuing here in the rich tradition of San Antonio and military aviation. We come from a long line of people who have been doing this before us, and we will continue to take the fight into the future."
The ceremony was concluded with a wreath laying to honor the accomplishments of Foulois and his eight-man team and to remember the beginning of San Antonio's military aviation heritage.
"In the spirit of what happened here, I want to congratulate each and every one of you and thank you for continuing to recognize and celebrate the history of aviation," Wiggins said. "It has been an honor for me to stand here today and be a part of this tradition."