Oral History Interview with W. P. Wright, 1975 Page: 2 of 7
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Mr. Wright: Was during World War II. That was back when Camp Barkeley was in
operation. However when the war was over that base likewise was closed. In fact that
thousand acres approximately or whatever it was in the original site was sold to the city
of Abilene for a municipal airport for about ten dollars. [Mr. Conley: Huh] And the
government relinquished all control over it at that time. That was after the decision was
made to go back and get an additional airport that they revived the idea of furnishing the
land requirement. [Mr. Conley: Huh] And that was how it came back with a program to
raise a million dollars to furnish the requirements for the government to make the
installation.
Mr. Conley: This was for the air base?
Mr. Wright: For Dyess Air Base. Uh huh.
Mr. Conley: For Dyess. Huh.
Mr. Wright: They didn't raise quite a million. They raised eight hundred and some odd
thousand. I'm not familiar with..., [Mr. Conley: Hmm] but I'm sure the Reporter-News
will reflect the actual amount of the money raised that went to buy the additional land to
make up the five thousand acres that now comprises Dyess Air Force Base. And we, in
an agreement with Mr. Finletter who was then Secretary of the Air Force, agreed to buy
and convey to the federal government for one dollar this five thousand acres of land
provided they would build an air base.
Mr. Conley: What about the actual work of these various civic leaders, the Military
Affairs committee people and whoever else going to Washington and wherever else you
had to go to talk with the right people. What kind of steps were involved there? You
start out on a local level and get to lower congressmen and then to senators or how did
that work?
Mr. Wright: Well, it actually started, uh, to tell you the truth, I don't remember exactly
how it started when the first calls were made or who they were made on, but they had to
be made on the Department of Defense with the idea of getting the Air Force to take
some particular requirement that they had and fill it out here. [Mr. Conley: Uh huh.] And
we didn't know whether TAC [Mr. Conley: Yeah.] would need it or MATs or SACI or
the Air Training Command or who. And first we had to show it to the air force people in
Washington to sell them on the location, which was done. In other words, the Secretary
of the Air Force sent a team to Abilene to survey it, which they did and approved it as a
proposed location. Then they had to designate which service would use it. [Mr. Conley:
Uh huh.] So they then in turn sent several services here. [Mr. Conley: Uh huh.] And we
called on General LeMay in Omaha , when he was in command of SAC, to try to sell he
and his staff on SAC because we felt like they were the most aggressive at the time. [Mr.
Conley: Uh huh.] It would mean more and a better installation for us.2
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Conley, Jim & Wright, W. P. Oral History Interview with W. P. Wright, 1975, text, 1975; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth744316/m1/2/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Public Library.