Who remembers Bergstrom Air Force Base?

[Southern Friendly]

My brother just sent me some pictures of when we lived on the base 1970-1975. I decided to look it up online and ran into this forum. I've lived in San Diego for decades now so had no idea it had been turned into an airport; sad the base is gone as it was such a part of history. I loved living on the base (still have my base id; for some reason I could never bring myself to throw it away) where there was a wonderful feeling of community & safety & everything you needed was right there.

National Anthem every day at 4:00 and everyone would have to stop & salute or place their hands over their hearts; do not remember any protests. No one wanted the war, but the draft was in effect and well, there we were; you don't beat up the people who were being forced to be there.

Yes planes, security & military personnel everywhere; it was a large base. We lived first in the duplexes, and then in the cozy 2-story homes; now they've been moved off base??

I was a waitress at the club which was quite a hoot. Someone mentioned being there at the time of the Cuban missile crisis; we were at Homestead AFB (down by the Everglades) soon after when tension was still high & it was pretty active there as well so I can relate.

Knowing things change you always hope it is for the better. While the airport sounds to be a great addition for Austin, it seems that in many ways the loss of the base has negatively impacted the economy and expectations for the area, which is sad. While most tend to remember times fondly it was not a perfect place, but we enjoyed the people and all the base had to offer, and loved living there immensely.

Thanks for the brief walk down memory lane; most things I remember, and there was a lot...and if anyone remembers the "commissary," yowsa.

[Trainwreck20]

The Strategic Air Command building has been converted into a hotel (the airport Hilton), which is kind of cool to see.

To be fair, of all the places that could afford to lose a military installation, Austin was right up there. It is sad to see it gone, but it didn't really hurt the economy much at all. The loss of the commissary, though, was a blow to retirees.

[ScoPro]

Yeah, my parents did all their food shopping at the Bergstrom commissary even though HEB was a better buy for most things. My niece worked as a sacker there one summer in the early 70s.
My Mom rarely missed Bingo night at the Officers Club.

[Suesbal]

Have these old planes on display been removed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0OXXC7otlY&t=32s

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

I remember Bergatrom Air Force Base. It was located where the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - aka ABIA, is now, since the late 90's-early 2000's. Quite a few people who worked at Bergstrom lived in the Dove Springs neighborhood in Austin. After Bergstrom closed, Dove Springs became home for many renters and the neighborhood became one of the most gang infested neighborhoods in Austin, and for awhile, it was the only neighborhood in Austin that a curfew was in effect. That's changed now, as the Dove Springs area is improving nearly everyday. It's much safer and you don't see large groups of teenagers and young adults hanging out in convenience store parking lots. The Far East side of Dove Springs has many nice new houses and a couple of nice looking apartment complexes that might be so-called "luxury" apartments, but I can't say that with 100% certainty.

This is a super interesting perspective. After reading that I really see the comparison of dove springs and the areas in “north” west San Antonio kind of near Marbach/Potranco/410 over to highway 90. Military families, for some reason always want the newest and best track housing near work, and when it starts even showing a little age they move further out leaving it to renters and leaving civilian homeowners to deal with the down turn that happens when areas there isn’t as much pride in “owning” the home. In San Antonio, families are as far out as Medina county now. Which direction did military families move here when Dove got “old”? Maybe towards oltorf and woodland? Up north toward Pflugerville? I can see that may have happened in five springs. I’d love to see some more revitalization in Dove Springs. I feel like it could happen, but it still a bit rough around the edges.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by Suesbal

Have these old planes on display been removed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0OXXC7otlY&t=32s

Apparently so, as I have not seen them anywhere on the grounds in years.

[Travis1970]

I grew up in the early to late 1960's in a south Austin neighborhood located located just on the northern edge of St.Edwards University property. My father was a sale rep for a large paper company and had been reassigned from their San antonio sales area to their Austin sales area. The neighborhood was situated right under the western landing approach area for Bergstrom Air Force Base about 3 nautical miles west of BAFB. This landing approach was the dominant one due to the almost constant south south westerly breeze off the Gulf of Mexico. It provided us a view of low level final approach stage Air Force aircraft landings. B 58 Hustler bombers and B 52 Stratofortress bombers used to land frequently during the daylight hours. Later the base designation changed to Tactical Air Command and F4 Phantom and other fighter aircraft used at the time would land, as well as B 52 bombers, some of which were still assigned to the base. Late at night the sounds of jet engines being spun up by the BAFB aircraft maintenance crews could be heard clearly in the night. This was coupled with the loud pressure relief valve blast noises emitted by the Holly Street power plant, which was later closed under public protest from the nearby community. Finally the base changed to Texas Air Reserve and F4 Phantoms sometimes painted Vietnam War camouflage pattern became the most common aircraft using the base. Our family also attended the airshows at BAFB every year as well. The shows featured the Air Force Thunderbirds fighter group performing individual and group displays of dazzling aeronautical maneuvering.
Along with the show the base always had an open house on the base airstrip with vintage aircraft from WW2 and the Korean War that they allowed the public to inspect and climb on.