New Mexico. Columbus Airfield and the First Aero Squadron’s Search for Pancho Villa

New Mexico. Columbus Airfield and the First Aero Squadron’s Search for Pancho Villa

On March 9, 1916, the Mexican renegade Pancho Villa led a force of four hundred soldiers across the U.S./Mexican border to attack the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. The next day, Brigadier General John J. Pershing received orders take a contingent of U.S. Army troops to New Mexico for the purpose of securing and protecting the border. Accompanying Pershing was Army Captain B.D. Foulis who commanded the newly formed First Aero Squadron. Departing San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston, Foulis arrived at the small airfield in Columbus on March 15th with eight Curtiss JN-3 “Jenny” aircraft, several trucks, and spare parts. The JN-3 was a biplane trainer equipped with a sixty horsepower engine. Including Captain Foulis, the group had nine pilots, eighty-two enlisted men, a civilian mechanic, and a medical corpsman. Captain Townsend F. Dodd made the squadron’s first reconnaissance flight into Mexico with Captain Foulis flying as an observer.

Mexico’s dry air and hot temperatures created significant challenges for flying underpowered aircraft. Propellers warped and windblow sand damaged engines. Supporting General Pershing and his 6,000 strong army, the First Aero Squadron carried dispatches between headquarters in Columbus and the columns of soldiers moving southward. Foulis’ aircraft were also used on scouting missions to search for Villa’s forces. However, with limited horsepower, the aircraft had difficulty climbing over the mountains where enemy troops were believed to be hiding. Some passes in northern Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains were more than 2,133 meters above sea level. Subsequent aircraft delivered to Columbus fared no better in hot desert temperatures. Having failed to capture Pancho Villa, Pershing withdrew American forces from Mexico in January 1917. Soon after, the First Aero Squadron received orders to depart for France.

In the years after Pershing’s punitive expedition, the Columbus Airfield was used to patrol the U.S./Mexican border. In the 1920s, it was designated an “intermediate field” by the U.S. Department of Commerce, to be used for emergency landings by aircraft flying between major cities. At that time, the field had two dirt runways, a one-thousand-meter strip running east-west, and an eight hundred meter north-south strip. The two runways formed a “T” on the east side of the field. Although equipped with a rotating beacon, the airfield had no services. During the 1940s the government added a small building with communications and weather forecasting equipment. Falling into disuse, the airfield served as a base for the notorious “Columbus Air Force” during the 1960s and 1970s. The group of drug runners was led by a former WWII bomber pilot named Martin Willard Houltin.

Our first stop in Columbus was Pancho Villa State Park and its museum that interprets Villa’s attack and the subsequent campaign to capture him. Built in 1902, the building housing the museum is a former U.S. customs house. Inside is a Curtiss JN-3 Jenny similar to those flown by Foulis and his pilots. Departing the museum, we drove a few kilometers west on Apple Street to Columbus Airfield.

Parking near Kansas Street, we walked to the former airfield. Framed by mesquite and sage growing along its edges, we speculated that the dirt runways look much as they did in 1916. On the north side of the east-west runway are foundations and concrete steps of the former communications and generator buildings. A few meters away is a large concrete arrow that was adjacent to the field’s rotating beacon. Together, the arrow and beacon were used to direct planes to the next intermediate field along an airway route. The tower and generator building have since been moved to a place outside the Columbus Historical Society Building. Marking the main runway are corrugated strips of metal mounted on poles and interspersed with cones that once held electric lights. Today, the airfield is part of the Columbus Historic District and owned by the First Aero Squadron Foundation.

Although small in scope, the raid on Columbus was the first armed invasion of the U.S. since the Mexican/American War. More significant, General Pershing’s campaign in pursuit of Pancho Villa marked the first tactical use of airplanes by the U.S. military. Collectively, the First Aero Squadron amassed 346 hours of flying time on 540 flights over 31,000 kilometers. Captain Foulis went on to become a general and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Today, the attack on Columbus is remembered on both sides of the border with events featuring reenactors dressed in period clothing.