JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Air Force history came alive Oct. 14 when the Airman
Heritage Museum and Enlisted Character Development Center hosted a living
history heritage ride tour where U.S. military aviation began.
The event, supporting Air Education and Training Command
commander Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson’s first AETC Senior Leaders’ Conference,
included volunteer re-enactors portraying Air Force legends during a tour of
historic Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
“I have a family member who was in the Army Air Corps, so
this event was a great opportunity to wear a similar uniform,” Airman 1st Class
Lucas Hurt, 502nd Security Forces Squadron entry controller, said. “It’s
important to remember our history; not knowing how far you’ve come makes it
easier to lose your way in the future.”
Military aviation began at Fort Sam Houston with Lt.
Benjamin Foulois’ flight in March 1910.
Foulois, who would later become Chief of the Army Air Corps, had been
trained by the Wright Brothers and was ordered to Fort Sam Houston to learn how
to fly the Wright B Flyer. Foulois made
the first military operational flight in U.S. history in Aeroplane No. 1, and
was for a time, the U.S. military’s only pilot and their entire Air Force.
“Fort Sam Houston was the birth place of military aviation,”
Rudy Purificato, Airmen Heritage Museum and Enlisted Character Development
Center command curator, said. “The main focus of JBSA’s two museums is to
transform the mindset of the training environment by educating new military
members on enlisted heritage and the enlisted contributions to aviation
history.”
The highlight of the day was a visit to the actual location
where Foulois made his historic flight, the Foulois monument at the main
flagpole at MacArthur Parade Field. A dramatic skit also took place at the site
with a re-enactor portraying Vernon Burge, the first enlisted pilot who helped
Foulois as an aviation mechanic and who came up with the idea for adding
landing gear to the lieutenant’s aeroplane.
The tour also included visits to the 19th Century staff post
homes of Col. Billy Mitchell, champion of airpower and strategic bombing,
Foulois’ home and Gen. John Pershing’s home where he lived shortly after
employing airpower operationally for the first in U.S. history during the 1916
Punitive Expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. The tour concluded with a visit to the Fort
Sam Houston Museum at the Quadrangle to view a special military aviation
exhibit, featuring a live performance by a re-enactor portraying Foulois.
Though heritage rides are designed to educate junior and
senior leaders on the history of local units and are usually held in
conjunction with a conference or exercise, the rides also contribute to the
bigger picture of educating younger military generations.