Garner Army Air Field
Uvalde, Uvalde County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in July 1941, Garner Army Air Field was named in honor of former vice president John Nance Garner, a Texas native. Hangar Six, a private flying school owned by John Lapham of San Antonio, provided flight training conducted by civilians with Army Air Corps officers as administrators. Other civilian jobs included maintenance and parachute packing; both men and women worked as aircraft mechanics. Fifty cadets reported for duty by October 1941 and began learning to fly PT-19A training aircraft. Tom Holland of Fayetteville, Tennessee, made the first solo flight. By the time the first class of cadets graduated, the country was at war. Later classes contained as many as 360 cadets from the U.S., twenty-one Latin American countries, and Turkey. Uvalde citizens of all ages befriended the cadets during their 10-week stay in the area. After deactivation in 1945, four hangars, the control tower, and runways continued in use as a city airport. The remaining ten on-story buildings became Southwest Texas Junior College which opened its doors to students in 1946. Area residents received flight training and certification at the field, and flight instruction became part of the college curriculum. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in July 1941 and named for Texas native and former Vice President John Nance Garner, this field trained pilots on the eve of and throughout World War II. Civilian instructors under Army Air Corps officers taught cadets to fly PT-19A trainers; men and women worked as mechanics and parachute packers, and later classes drew cadets from across the Americas and as far as Turkey. After deactivation in 1945 the runways became a city airport and the remaining buildings opened as Southwest Texas Junior College in 1946.
Why it matters
The field shows how small Texas towns became part of the vast wartime pilot-training network, and how that infrastructure converted into lasting civilian aviation and higher education.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Nance Garner
- · John Lapham
- · Tom Holland
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Laughlin Army Air Field
Del Rio, TX
In 1942, with the nation racing to train pilots for World War II, the U.S. Army built an airfield east of Del Rio, where year-round clear skies and open ground offered near-ideal flying conditions. It was named for Lt. Jack Thomas Laughlin, a Del Rio native shot down over the Java Sea and the first local pilot killed in the war; his widow and infant daughter attended the 1943 dedication. Instructors trained crews on the B-26 Marauder before the base closed at war's end and reopened as an Air Force base in 1952.
USS Uvalde
Uvalde, TX
Commissioned in 1944, the USS Uvalde was a C-2 type Navy cargo ship built in Oakland and named to honor former Vice President John Nance Garner and his home county. She served in the Pacific during World War II, carried troops and cargo to occupation outposts, and later supported United Nations forces in the Korean War before being reactivated during the Cold War tensions of the Berlin and Cuban Missile crises. Decommissioned in 1968, she left her anchor and bell to the city of Uvalde, displayed here in memory of the ship and her crew.
Original Site of Uvalde High School
Uvalde, TX
Four years after the railroad reached Uvalde, townspeople built their first school here in 1885, a picketed cedar-log structure on land donated by town founder Reading W. Black. Demand quickly outgrew it: a two-story building followed, rooms were added, and the first class graduated in 1891, sometimes in the town opera house. Fire destroyed the school in 1898, but determined citizens promptly rebuilt on the same site in 1900 before finally moving the high school to West Main Street in 1908.
Nicolas Street School
Uvalde, TX
Built in 1938, the Nicolas Street School is the last surviving school telling the story of African American education in Uvalde. Its creation owed much to teacher Susie Harris, who — after the school board reneged on promised new facilities for Black students — wrote directly to Uvalde resident and U.S. Vice President John Nance Garner for help, and won a new campus. In an era of "separate but seldom equal" schooling, two teachers taught eight grades here, and the school served the community until 1965, a full decade after the district voted to integrate.