Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Texas - Northeastern San Antonio area
© 2002, © 2008 by Paul Freeman. Revised 5/21/08.
Cade Aux AAF (added 2/17/04) - Dodd Field (revised 8/13/06)
Gaudelupe County Airport / Seguin Municipal Airport / Geromino Field (revised 5/21/08)
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29.48 North / 98.43 West (Northeast of Downtown San Antonio, TX)
A panoramic view of "Aeroplanes & Transportation, 1st Aero Squadron, Ft. Sam Houston, 1916."
Following the successful experiments with aircraft at Fort Sam Houston in 1910-11,
the Chief Signal Officer decided to establish an Aviation Post at Fort Sam Houston near the old Target Range.
Captain Benjamin Foulois arrived in March 1915 to help establish the aviation field for the 1st Aero Squadron,
scheduled to transfer to Fort Sam Houston.
Clearing of the land in the southwest corner of the tract & construction was underway at that time.
The pack train stable was converted into a garage & the existing quarters into a machine shop.
Material salvaged from the two hangars on main post was recycled to construct storage buildings.
The completed Aviation Post included one barracks for 120 men,
two five-plane corrugated, galvanized iron hangars, an administration or headquarters building,
quarters for the Commanding Officer and two Bachelor Officer Quarters with a capacity of twelve each.
An elevated water tank, which had been located in the Quadrangle, was erected in the southwest corner of the field.
The officers of the 1st Aero Squadron flew its six aircraft from Fort Sill to Fort Sam Houston,
reporting for duty on 26 November 1915.
The remainder of the squadron drove its trucks & motorcycles along the route,
selecting landing sites and making arrangements to maintain the planes.
Captain Townsend Dodd arrived for duty the following month.
The 1st Aero Squadron's stay was of limited duration
as it was ordered to accompany General Pershing's Punitive Expedition into Mexico in March 1916.
In August 1916, Fort Sam Houston's Aviation Post was selected
to be developed as an Aviation Depot to organize & train additional Aero Squadrons
and by September, supplies & equipment began arriving.
Major Foulois arrived in November to serve as the Department Aviation Officer
to oversee the organization of the 3rd & 4th Aero Squadrons.
One of the officers of the new 3rd Aero Squadron was Captain Carl Spaatz who also arrived in November.
Foulois soon reported that the existing Aviation Post was too small for the scale of operations planned for it
and began looking for a more suitable site.
When Foulois was selected to replace Major William Mitchell as Assistant to the Chief of the Aviation Section in Washington,
Captain Townsend Dodd was appointed to replace Foulois as Departmental Aviation Officer,
arriving in San Antonio on 19 March 1917.
Foulois selected a new site for the Aviation Depot southwest of the city and in May, 1917,
flight operations were transferred to what would become Kelly Field.
The Aviation Post was turned over to the Auxiliary Remount Depot
with the proviso that is would be returned if needed for flight operations.
In June of 1925, the field once again reverted to use as an airdrome.
Preparations were made to receive the 12th Observation Squadron from Fort Bliss.
This unit would support the 2d Division, stationed at Fort Sam Houston.
Flight operations resumed in August 1925.
A 1926 photo of Dodd Field (courtesy of David Brooks).
The barracks & hangars are along Military Highway on the left, officers quarters along Dashiel Road,
with the Administrative/headquarters building on the left.
As seen in the photo, the airfield itself was an open grass field, with no specific runway alignment.
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 Dodd, Air Service,
who was killed in an aircraft accident on October 5, 1919 at Bustleton Field near Philadelphia.
He had served previously at the field which was given his name
and had been commander of the Aviation Post when the 3rd Aero Squadron was stationed there.
When the 12th Observation Squadron replaced its Douglas biplanes with the larger Consolidated O-19 aircraft,
the original hangars were rendered obsolete & converted to shops.
In October 1931, active flight operations were terminated
and Major Frank Lackland moved the aircraft to Brooks Field.
After that, the area was used by the 2nd Division Air Service,
for Reserve Component training & as a polo field.
The Coast Guard used the air field briefly in the 1930s
and in 1937, the 8th Corps Area listed it as an emergency field.
Some of the buildings were demolished or salvaged.
At least one of the hangars was recycled.
A steel hangar built in 1917 was taken down & re-erected as a storage building (building 1198) along Wilson Street in 1939.
Enlargement of the field for aviation operations was still being considered as late as 1935.
A proposal was made to lengthening & widening the runways.
One gravel runway would be extended to 3,400' long & 200' wide.
Another new 4,000' runway was to be added.
Both of these runways would have extended across Dashiell Road to the south,
but neither was constructed.
The environs of Dodd Field were used to train Air Corps bombardiers in the 1930s.
After practicing their technique on a large scale terrain model of Dodd Field & the land to the south,
bombardiers-to-be from Kelly Air Force Base would make live bombing runs
and drop black powder practice bombs on targets south of Dodd Field.
"Dodd" was depicted as an auxiliary airfield on the 1934 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks).
This is the last depiction which has been located of Dodd Field as an active aviation facility.
The official date of closure of Dodd Field as an aviation facility has not been determined.
The Second Division established a "Model Camp" at the former airfield in 1937 for recruit training.
In December, 1939, facilities at the camp were improved by the addition of a mess & kitchen, lavatories & wood floors for the tents.
From time to time, troops from Fort Bliss would encamp at Dodd Field while enroute to maneuvers in Louisiana.
The facilities at Dodd Field at this time had a nominal capacity of 2,200 troops in the mobilization-type buildings
and another 4,800-6,400 troops in the tents.
Two of the former BOQs became barracks & the former hangars became mess halls.
A Prisoner of War Camp was established on Dodd Field on 21 October 1943.
A double chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounded the compound,
and guard towers were spaced along the perimeter.
A 1944 aerial view of the POW camp tents set up on Dodd Field.
The camp's normal capacity was 1,000 POWs but at the end of the war,
occupancy swelled to 3,500 as POWs from its satellite and sub-camps were returned to Fort Sam Houston as they closed.
The last group of 411 POWs left Fort Sam Houston on 17 June 1946 for repatriation.
In 1949, the Wherry Housing development of 500 units was authorized for Fort Sam Houston,
to be constructed on 135 acres at the north end of Dodd Field, from the former site of the POW camp, eastward.
Ground breaking for the construction of a permanent, 1000-man Army Reserve Center (B-1610) occurred in 1959.
Built on the site of the former hangars, it was completed at a cost of $485,000 the following year.
In the 1995 USGS aerial photo, the outline of the property of Dodd Field remained recognizable,
although several buildings had been constructed over portions of the site.
As seen in the 2005 USGS aerial photo,
the outline of the property of Dodd Field remained recognizable.
Amazingly, the water tower at the southwest corner of the field remained standing (the same water tower visible in the 1926 photo).
Roger Ritter reported in 2006, “The Pioneer Flight Museum in Kingsbury, TX,
has one of the original hangars from Dodd Field.
In the 1926 aerial shot, it's the smallish black one at the far end of the hangar row on the left.”
The site of Dodd Field is bounded on the north by Rittiman Road, on the west by Harry Wurzbach Memorial Highway,
on the south by Winans Road (formerly Dashiell Road), and on the east by the Fort Sam Houston Reservation boundary.
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Cade Auxiliary Army Airfield, Kirby, TX
29.51 North / 98.37 West (Northeast of San Antonio, TX)
Cade Aux AAF, as depicted on the 1945 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks).
Photo of the airfield while in use has not been located.
This airfield was evidently established during WW2 as one of eight satellite airfields for Randolph AAF,
which was the largest flight training facility in the world at the start of WW2.
The date of construction of Cade Aux AAF has not been determined.
The earliest depiction of the field which has been located
was on the 1945 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks).
"Cade AF", as depicted on the February 1950 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks).
The Aerodromes table on the February 1950 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks)
described Cade as having an "all way" unpaved landing area, measuring 2,400'.
According to David Brooks, "Looking at the terrain,
I suspect that it was a square/rectangle with the longest side being 2,400'."
Cade was listed as not being maintained and use at own risk.
The date of closure of the Cade airfield has not been determined.
Cade was presumably abandoned in the 1950s,
after primary flight training had moved from Randolph to other AFBs.
The Cade auxiliary airfield (with its unpaved runways) would not have been suitable
for the jet transition training (T-33s & T-37s) which was later conducted at Randolph.
By the time of the January 1970 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy),
the airfield at Cade was no longer depicted at all.
David Brooks recalled that the area around Cade was heavily built up by the 1980s,
with numerous homes & businesses.
As seen in the 1995 USGS aerial photo,
no trace appeared to remain of the former airfield.
The site of Cade Aux AAF is located west of the intersection of Gibbs Sprawl Road & Walzem Road.
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Gaudelupe County Airport / Seguin Municipal Airport (T90, TE70) / Geromino Field,
Seguin, TX
29.59 North / 98 West (East of San Antonio, TX)
An entry from the 1963 TX Airport Directory (courtesy of Steve Cruse).
This former general aviation airport was evidently built at some point between 1949-59,
as it was not depicted on the 1949 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The first depiction to the field which has been located was on the 1959 San Antonio Sectional Chart,
which depicted it as "Guadalupe Co".
It was listed among active airports in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory as "Guadalupe County Airport",
with a single 4,400' turf & asphalt runway, and the operator listed as Seguin Aviation.
It was listed "Guadalupe County Airport" in the 1963 TX Airport Directory,
with a 2,000' asphalt section set amidst a 4,000' turf Runway 12/30.
An asphalt taxiway led south toward a small ramp with two hangars.
The manager was listed as W.B. Stevens.
According to William Suffa, Guadalupe County Airport
was depicted as an active airfield on the 1965 San Antonio Sectional Chart.
According to Stephen McNicoll, the airfield was labeled "Navion" on the 1967 San Antonio Sectional Chart,
and then as "Guadalupe County" on the 1968 chart.
"Guadalupe County" was depicted on the January 1970 San Antonio Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
as having a single 2,000' paved runway.
The earliest photo which has been located of the Guadalupe County Airport was a 1973 aerial view.
It depicted the field as having a single paved northwest/southeast runway, a parallel taxiway,
and a ramp & several small hangars on the west side of the field.
Several light aircraft were also visible on the ramp.
The 1973 USGS topo map depicted "Geronimo Field Airport” as having a single paved runway.
The field was labeled as "Guadalupe” on the 1976 USGS topo map.
Having been renamed, the field was listed as "Geronimo Field" in the 1985 TX Airport Directory (courtesy of Steve Cruse).
The single runway was by then a 2,900' paved strip.
The operator was listed as Seguin Aviation Inc.
Henry Graeber recalled, “In 1985, I took flight lessons at Geronimo Field in Seguin.
I soloed but because of family obligations, never finished my private.
My flight instructor [was] Tripp Riedel, who was a young man at the time.
I've got between 55-60 hours in various planes there.”
The 1987 USGS topo map depicted "Geronimo Field” as having a single paved runway.
As of the 1995 USGS aerial photo,
the airfield consisted of a single 4,000' paved Runway 12/30, a parallel taxiway,
a small ramp & several small hangars.
Three light single engine aircraft are visible on the ramp in the above 1995 aerial photo.
Eric Bauer recalled, “In my logbook my last flight to Geronimo Field was in April 1998.
They told me that it was to be their last month of operation -
that they were selling to a mobile home manufacturing facility.”
Buck Wyndham reported in 2003 that
"The site of the old Geronimo Airport is now used for mobile home manufacturing & distribution."
In 2003 a small private field, "Huber Airpark Civic Club LLC Airport",
opened a half mile east of the site of the old Geronimo Airport, but it is not the same airfield.
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