U. S. Naval Air Station (Blimp Base)
Hitchcock, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Seven-tenths mile south) In an effort to defend U. S. coasts and shipping lanes against German submarine activity during World War II, the U. S. Navy established bases to house huge lighter-than-air (LTA) craft, also known as blimps. With the ability to hover above a target, the blimps were uniquely qualified for coastal defense and observation. Because of its site on the flat Texas coastal plain, Hitchcock was chosen as the location for one of the nine new blimp bases. Construction began in 1942, and the facility was commissioned on May 22, 1943. The resulting military personnel build-up caused an economic boom in the community. The Hitchcock base consisted of forty-seven buildings, including a massive hangar to house six blimps, administration buildings, warehouses, living quarters, and recreational facilities. Aircraft from the base, in addition to their regular patrolling duties, were also used to assist with hurricane relief efforts and war bond drives. In 1944, after the blimps were no longer needed, the Hitchcock base was redesignated for other purposes. Following the war some of the buildings were used by private interests, and after hurricane damage in 1961 the blimp hangar was razed. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During World War II, German submarines prowled the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and the U.S. Navy answered with a fleet of lighter-than-air blimps that could hover patiently over shipping lanes to spot and deter them. The flat Texas coastal plain made Hitchcock an ideal home for one of nine such bases, commissioned in 1943 with a massive hangar for six airships and dozens of support buildings that sparked a local wartime boom. When the submarine threat faded the base was repurposed, and its great hangar was finally razed after hurricane damage in 1961.
Why it matters
The blimp base is a reminder that World War II reached America's own coastline, and that small Gulf Coast towns became front-line links in the nation's defense.
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Related events
- · World War II coastal defense
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Camp Wallace
Hitchcock, TX
As the United States mobilized for World War II, the government acquired more than 3,300 acres between Hitchcock and Alta Loma and built Camp Wallace, named for World War I Colonel Elmer J. Wallace. Construction began in November 1940, and by May 1941 the sprawling installation of nearly 400 buildings housed over 10,000 people for military training. Over the war it also held German prisoners of war, passed to naval control in 1945 as a veterans' separation center, and even aided relief after the 1947 Texas City disaster before being declared surplus.
City of Hitchcock
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Once Karankawa country and later open cattle range, this stretch of Galveston County gained a town when the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway pushed through in the 1870s and named the station for civic leader Lent Munson Hitchcock. Truck farmers turned it into a fruit-and-vegetable center with stores, churches, and a school by the 1890s, until farming declined and men found work in nearby Texas City. World War II brought the biggest change of all: Camp Wallace trained anti-aircraft crews here, and a blimp base flew submarine patrols over the Gulf from 1941 to 1945.
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By local tradition, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad won its right-of-way through Emily Hitchcock's land in 1875 by promising a depot bearing her late husband's name. The railroad platted the town of Hitchcock in 1891, and the depot that opened by 1893 became a hub where passengers, freight, and farm produce all passed through. The last surviving GCSF depot in the area, it was moved to this spot in 1975 and turned into a museum in 1982.
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