What's New At VEG!?! Featuring "things" that you WILL want to see out at VCMGA's Victoria Educational Gardens...

UPLOADED WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20, 2011 A new historical marker sign was dedicated at Victoria Educational Gardens in front of the patio at the Officer's Club at Victoria Regional Airport on Saturday, February 18.

A ceremony was conducted by the Victoria Historical Society from 8-10 a.m. In addition to the many VCMGA members who have volunteered tirelessly to make Victoria Educational Gardens a premier garden in South Texas, Bynn Lee chaired a group of members, including Laurel Lee, Linda Lees, Carmen Price, Karla Davis, and interns including Julie Moritz, Jean Huber, Claudia Rogers, and Emma Monroy who worked to "spiff" up the area before the ceremony.  The group added new plants, weeded the sidewalks, and cut back plants that were freeze-damaged during our two recent freezes. We applaud this group of gardeners, along with the added help of MGs, Ed Gregurek and Tom Akins, for their special efforts and appreciate the Historical Commission for the addition of the Foster Army Air Field historical marker to The Officer's Club and VEG.

The marker reads: TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION FOSTER ARMY AIR FIELD Prior to World War II, in an  effort to match the powerful  air armadas of the Axis  Nations, the U. S. Army Air  Corps (later U. S. Army Air Forces) rapidly increased its number of training installations  throughout the country.  The  City of Victoria secured an  advanced single engine aerial  gunnery training command  here, with construction  beginning on April 25, 1941.   Initially named Victoria  Field, the military renamed  the site in honor of 1st Lt.  Arthur L. Foster, an  instructor at Brooks Field  (San Antonio) killed when his  plane crashed in 1925.)  The  first class of cadets arrived  in Sept. 1941 and subsequent  classes arrived throughout  the war. Cadets received both  classroom flight instruction  and gunnery training on site,  with aerial gunnery practice  at ranges on Matagorda Island  and Matagorda Peninsula.  In  1942, the military assigned a  unit of the Women's Army  Corps here.  Cooperation  between the U. S. and Allied  Nations brought foreign  aviators here during the war  for training, most notably,  the 201st Fighter Squadron,  Mexican Expeditionary Air  Force (The Aztec Eagles.) The end of World War II,  brought the closure of  military sites across the  nation.  Foster Army Air  Field (AAF) closed on October 31,  1945, however, the airfield's  inactivation was short lived.   In 1951, The Korean War created a need for additional  jet training facilities and  once again the people of  Victoria rallied behind  efforts to secure a military installation.  As a result of local solicitation, the military reactivated Foster AAF on  April 1, 1952, with the first  class of jet aviation cadets  arriving in March 1953.  On  July 1, 1954, Foster Air  Force Base (AFB) became the  tactical air command control  center for the Western U. S.   In Dec. 1958.  The military  closed Foster AFB.  Two years  later the Federal Government  turned the airfield over to  Victoria County in exchange  for nearby Aloe Field, which  the government sold to  private investors.  In 1978,  Foster Field became Victoria  Regional Airport. (2003)

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