SAN ANTONIO — Saturday night, San Antonians got a rare look inside Fort Sam Houston Joint Base San Antonio’s open house.
There are over 660,000 people with connections to the military that make use of Joint Base San Antonio's services. On Saturday, Fort Sam Houston set out the welcome mat for the general public.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Gina “Flash” McKeen said it takes a lot of coordination to put on an open house like Saturdays, which was the first one they had held since 2018.
"This is actually a condensed timeline. We had about four months. Normally we would have about a year and a half to put something like this together,” McKeen said. “We saw the need. We wanted to tie it in with Fiesta to show our support for this community that we love and are part of."
She said COVID-19 played a role in preventing more open houses in the past five years.
“That’s what generated the pause in these recurring events,” she said. “Now that we’re hopefully safely passed the worst of COVID, we're excited that we can now get back to some of these things that help us be connected with the community.”
Brittany Harral brought her two daughters to the open house. She said she used to visit when she was their age.
“I used to play soccer here since I was like 5 to 9 years old or ten, like whenever the base closed due to 9/11, you know, And I have great memories here,” said Harral.
Kazim Fahim came to the open house at the suggestion of one of his classmates in the Leadership SA professional development program.
“This is your military. It's our military that we should be coming to these things to kind of see what's going on here,” Fahim said.
One of his other classmates, Bridget Weber, brought her two young children to the event. She had spent 10 years of her life living in San Antonio, but Saturday was the first time she had ever set foot on one of it’s four bases.
“My son loved just sitting in the helicopter pilot seat, so he was thrilled about that," said Weber. "We were able to walk in and see, see it and see inside.”
They and other civilians were given several glimpses of military life like the daily “retreat” in which everyone on base turns their attention to the flag as it is lowered for the day.
"You have Revelry, which is what you have in the morning, You've heard the famous bugle call,” said McKeen “And then symbolically, we retreat. We lower the flag. It's basically a symbol of saying the work is done for the daytime. To reset, recharge and be ready to take things on the next day."
McKeen says the military is eager to use events like this to grow the connection between the military and the culture of San Antonio.
"We're honored to be here as part of this community, and we are so happy that we can have opportunities for you to come and see what we're all about," she said.