Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

After the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, there was an increasing possibility of United States involvement in World War II, and an urgent need for naval aviators and naval air stations to train them. Coastal south Texas was considered an ideal location for its flat terrain, suitable weather for year-round flying, ready availability of fuel and seaplane training access. Subsequently, construction began and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (NAS-CC) was commissioned on March 12, 1941.

The first cadets began arriving in March 1941 and received their wings on November 1, only weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Before World War II ended, NAS-CC exceeded all other airfields, graduating 35,000 aviators, and became known as “the University of the Air.” Notable WWII pilots who received their wings at NAS-CC included later President George H. W. Bush, and later astronaut and Senator John Glenn. In addition to Americans, trainees came from Canada, England, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Scores of W.A.V.E.S. (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served at NAS-CC and its auxiliary fields as link trainer instructors, pressure chamber technicians, air traffic controllers and gunnery instructors.

In addition to the main station, auxiliary airfields were added at Rodd Field (primary flight training), Cabaniss and Cuddihy (intermediate flight training), Kingsville (advanced flight training, fighters and dive bombers), Waldron (torpedo bombers) and Chase Field in Beeville (specializing in instrument flying). Twenty-five additional outlying practice landing fields (“p-fields”) dotted the surrounding countryside. In 1945, NAS-CC established a camp for German prisoners of war. NAS-CC served as a vital military training facility and as a catalyst of postwar economic activity in the area.