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Aircraft vastly changed the face of war and Dagley Field played a part in that transformation. As tensions mounted in the late 1930s, the United States created the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), administered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. This program offered college students classroom instruction and flight time. The classes eliminated those who lacked potential and ensured that only qualified candidates trained to be army or navy pilots. Texas Technological College in Lubbock trained about 6,500 CPTP and Pre-Flight students in the 309th College Training Detachment (Aircrew) from September 1939 to June 1944. Half of these students flew at Dagley Field. The airport was located on 34th Street and extended one-half mile west from Quaker Avenue to Utica Avenue and then south to 42nd Street. It consisted of four dirt runways and one 140-foot long hangar, which served as an office, workshop and doping room. Maenard F. "Dag" Dagley moved his flying service onto this quarter-section of land after the U.S. Army Air Forces moved into the Lubbock Municipal Airport in June 1942. In March 1943, Dagley himself was called into wartime service, and Clent Breedlove of Breedlove Aerial Service assumed responsibility for the students. Training ended on June 30, 1944, and the airfield name changed to Lubbock Aero Field, offering private lessons and charter flights. Due to a welding accident, the hangar burned on April 29, 1945. After the war ended and the demand for trained pilots decreased, the field closed. In late 1946, long-time property owner Samuel D. Baggett subdivided the land into commercial and residential lots, naming the new addition College Heights. Later, Stubbs Elementary School opened and served the children of Lubbock until 2001. (2017) |
