28-04-2025
Pilot Reflects on Vietnam Helicopter Training at Closed Texas Fort
MINERAL WELLS, TX (FOX 44) — Let's step back in time to Fort Wolters, the launchpad where over 40,000 helicopter pilots learned to fly during the Vietnam War.
One of the pilots who trained there, and later was also an instructor there, is Jim Messinger – one of the founders and current treasurer of The National Vietnam Veterans Museum just outside of Mineral Wells.
'The large building on the left,' Messinger says, as he reminisces about where he lived while stationed on Fort Wolters in the 1960s.
There's not much left of what was then living quarters. There are other signs of what was before Fort Wolters was deactivated in 1975. Stairs leading to what were buildings, foundations of buildings long gone, building after building – some in advanced states of decay. It's all tucked into pockets what is now the Wolters Industrial Park, which has reminders of the significance at the gates.
'I was on a committee that built up the front gate, rebuilt the front gate, and we maintain that front gate as it was during Vietnam. You'll get to see it. It has a Huey – it has the two helicopters that we trained in on the gate there,' Messinger says.
Messinger says Fort Wolters was once part of what was Camp Wolters.
'Camp Wolters was the largest infantry replacement depot in World War II. It was gigantic, and so after the war that disappeared pretty quickly,' Messinger says. 'The Air Force dropped in part of that later on for a little while. One of the good things they did was build a new airport for Mineral Wells, and then they left.'
Then the U.S. Army came in and established Fort Wolters on a portion of Camp Wolters as the primary helicopter training post for the Vietnam War, which it did until 1973 before the post's deactivation in 1975. Messinger says he and many of his fellow helicopter pilots have wonderful memories of their time here.
'The camaraderie. We all of us went to basic training and came straight here,' Messinger says. 'There were some prior service guys who got in on it, but most of us went to basic training and came here to learn how to fly helicopters and were to become warrant officers.'
Then there's a different kind of nostalgia – remembering what was and is no more.
'It's kind of sad. Camp Wolters is pretty much 99 percent gone. Ft. Wolters still has some of our barracks buildings that we lived in. They were made out of concrete, and they're still out there and look good. The facilities for flying anything have been destroyed, pretty much. It's just a bunch of junk. It's just a deserted fort now.'
You can learn all about Fort Wolters and its history by clicking here.
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