SAN ANTONIO – If you drive through Thompson, you’ll likely travel down one of the main arteries of the city’s west side: General McMullen Drive.
“He was one of the most beloved commanders in San Antonio at the time,” said Joey Cipriano, a lifelong resident of Thompson and former vice president of the Thompson Neighborhood Association.
Cipriano’s love of history has also made him the unofficial neighborhood historian.
Major General Clements McMullen
The road named McMullen leads into what once was the entrance to the now-shuttered Kelly Air Force Base, which is now the footprint of Port San Antonio.
The road used to be an old farm road.
“He had a vision of what Kelly was going to end up being in the future. And he realized, you know, this road that’s leading up to the base can’t stand like this. We need something better,” Cipriano said.
McMullen wanted a “four-lane super highway” leading into Kelly.
“So for years he advocated to find that money,” Cipriano said. “And he successfully did.”
McMullen’s military career spanned three wars, according to Place Names of San Antonio, and he commanded the San Antonio Air Material Area at Kelly Air Force Base from 1948 to 1954.
Billy Mitchell
The name Billy Mitchell is tied to another road in the Thompson neighborhood and an apartment complex, which has a historic designation.
Those apartments off General McMullen Drive are now called The Preserve at The Port, but many neighbors still refer to them as the Billy Mitchell apartments.
Mitchell served in World War I and became a highly decorated combat leader in what was the beginning of the U.S. flight service.
“He knew that the next major conflict wouldn’t be fought on the ground,” Cipriano said. “It would be fought in the air.”
In 1924, Mitchell predicted that a war with Japan would begin with an attack on Pearl Harbor — 17 years before it happened.
“He basically screamed and yelled at anybody he could talk to about the importance of funding an air defense,” Cipriano said.
Mitchell openly criticized top Navy leaders, leading to his court martial.
But today, he’s considered by many to be the father of the U.S. Air Force.
Legacy of military service
A different sort of fatherly legacy created a more recent tie to military service in Thompson.
Generations of neighbors have enlisted in the military, with a high percentage serving in the Vietnam War.
“We’re following ... the examples of our fathers,” said Mario Longoria, Ph.D. “They served willingly.”
Longoria is a member of Edgewood District Veterans, a group bonded by service to their country and connection to their neighborhood.
Longoria, already an accomplished author and native of Thompson, is writing a book about the history of Latinos in the U.S. military and, in particular, their service during Vietnam.
He served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969.
“I was able to identify 364 Edgewood District alumni who had actually served in the military between the years 1966 and 1971, which I found was tremendously high,” Longoria said.
Thompson and the closure of Kelly
The neighborhood is named after Lt. Stewart Leon Thompson, who died in a plane crash at Kelly Air Force Base.
“Unfortunately, while he was doing advanced training, advanced flight training here at Kelly, he was killed in a maneuver,” Cipriano said.
Kelly Air Force Base became the largest employer in San Antonio in the 1990s but closed in 1999 due to the federal government’s Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC.
“The restaurants, a lot of restaurants, went out of business,” said Albert Moreno, president of Edgewood District Veterans. “It was depressing economically for a while.”
The closure of Kelly changed the landscape of the Thompson neighborhood, but what remains today is a tremendous pride in military service.
“It was unspoken,” Longoria said. “You saw how important it was to defend this country.”