AN EXPERIANCE OF HOW THE FIRST TROOPS FOUND
THE BASE AND TOWN UPON RETURNING
By: Gregory B. Hummel, Captain, USAF (Ret.)
Stationed at Hondo Air Base, 1951 - 1954

I was stationed at Randolph Field at the time and received notice of impending transfer to Hondo Air Base in about 1951.  I was a SSgt at the time and in the personnel field.  When I got there, the base was in the process of being renovated and set up as a Primary Pilot Training Base.  During WW-II, it was a very large navigator training base - I think, the only one in the US.

When I and another SSgt got there, we found that many of the buildings had already been rebuilt, but as in our headquarters office, still smelled very strongly of chicken manure because some of the locals were raising chickens there.  As yet there were still no students or aircraft; in fact, we got information that there was a dead steer on one of the runways and had to arrange to get it removed.

SSgt Virgil (Bud) Heminger and I were the first of about a half-dozen office personnel assigned and spent our first day moving around town looking for an apartment to live in.  We were accommodated quickly by the townspeople who were really wonderful to all of us despite the fact that they got left holding the bag when the navigator training facility shut down after WWII.  Many "new" homes were simply vacated back then. Bud and I had to eat our meals at the local cafes and they were very good and we were treated as long-lost sons.

I was stationed there from about 1951 to 1954 and then transferred to Foster AFB, Victoria, TX and ultimately to Lackland for OCS training. We enjoyed our tour at Hondo enormously.