Description

The gun totin’, lead slingin’, fancy booted bandito of the border is gone, but in his place and over the same ranges has grown up a new and deadlier aristocracy of death dispensers. For a long time, after the disappearance of the “old days,” nothing was to be found on the wild areas around Laredo. Mesquite, Chapparel, sagebrush, and plenty of rattlers and jack-rabbits. However, when the United States became hard-pressed for aerial gunners; and it was evident that more schools would have to be opened, the Laredo area came into favor of its exceptionally good flying weather. When the site was selected in July of 1942, there was nothing on the barren ground, yet a few short months later, a factory had sprung up. A factory unique among a land of surprises. For here was taken raw material, from all corners of our land, all manner of men, trained in every conceivable trade; and in a few short weeks, they were turned into a homogenous group of deadly gunners and air crew members. In this volume will be found a pictorial record of the men and machines who make these changes, their ways of eating, living, and working and resting, and the way they take time out from their work. It is to these men, the officers and enlisted personnel of Laredo Army Air Field, and to the many students who have gone through and are going through now that this record is dedicated. They have made LAAF what it is and have every right to be proud of their work.