Naval Air Station Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Commissioned in March 1941 as the nation prepared for war, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi grew into one of the country's great flight schools, graduating some 35,000 aviators and earning the nickname 'the University of the Air.' Its trainees included future president George H. W. Bush and astronaut-senator John Glenn, while hundreds of WAVES served as instructors, controllers, and technicians across its many auxiliary fields.
Why it matters
It was a cornerstone of American air power in World War II and a lasting engine of Corpus Christi's growth.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George H. W. Bush
- · John Glenn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ward Island
Corpus Christi, TX
Named for developer John C. Ward, who acquired the 258-acre peninsula in 1892, Ward Island saw its resort dreams dashed by the 1893 depression and became instead a popular hunting and fishing ground. In 1942 the Navy turned it into an electronics and radar training base—the service's only such school—graduating more than 10,000 technicians before the site became the University of Corpus Christi and, eventually, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.
Aransas County Airport
Rockport, TX
This airfield grew out of the U.S. Navy's urgent need for pilot-training sites during World War II. In 1942 Aransas County offered land to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, voters approved a bond issue, and the county bought 700 acres for an auxiliary military landing field. Leased to the Navy for the war, it hosted landing practice for pilots based at Beeville, Kingsville, and Corpus Christi, and has served both military and civilian aviation ever since.
201st Fighter Squadron, Mexican Expeditionary Air Force (The Aztec Eagles)
Victoria, TX
After German U-boats sank its oil tankers, Mexico declared war on the Axis in 1942 and negotiated to train a fighter squadron in Texas. The 201st Fighter Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force—the "Aztec Eagles"—brought 300 volunteers to Foster Field near Victoria in 1944 before deploying to the Philippines in 1945. Flying with the U.S. Fifth Air Force, the unit carried out 96 combat missions against Japanese forces.
Foster Army Air Field
Victoria, TX
As the United States raced to build an air force before entering World War II, Victoria secured an advanced aerial gunnery training field, opened in 1941 and named for a young instructor killed in a 1925 crash. Cadets trained here throughout the war, firing over ranges on the Matagorda coast, and the base even hosted the Aztec Eagles — Mexico's 201st Fighter Squadron — as Allied fliers trained side by side. Closed at war's end, it was reactivated for jet training during the Korean War, became a permanent Air Force base, and finally passed into civilian hands as Victoria's regional airport.