US Naval Air Station - Yearbook (Alameda, CA)

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Welcome to AIameda E .lr Wingstover the Bay 21 'I,,..1: ..L I i X f Administration Building First Call Morning Colors . .h n . A

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ALA X A Pro GI' l By DOUGLAS B. MAULDIN, Chief Iournalist, USN Located in the heart of the riatiori's sixth largest residential complex, youthful NAS Alameda is firml entrenched in Bay Area industry and as a contributor to the most epochal fifty seven and a half years in human history-the era of aviation-it has few peers. Althou h only 19 years old, it has one of the largest aviation supply facilities p?us one ot the most complete naval aircraft overhaul and re- air industries in the world. Unlike most such sites with an interesting history coverin many years, only 800 acres of the present 2,468-acre beautifully langscaped naval air station can boast a history. The other 1,668 acres, which on November I will be twenty years old, had no history. lt made history, and its future will undoubtedly stretch the most apt imagination. This small 800 acres jutting into San Francisco Bay was once an Indian burial ground . . . then a hunting site for Spanish grandees . . . later a haven for miners who did not strike it rich in the 1849 gold rush . . . a celestial city for a Chinese tong . . . a refuge tor evacuees of the great quake of 1905. This constituted the embryo. The remainder was pum ed from the bay-and thus a giant was born. Now, instead of the ljndian burial ground, 10,000 dying aircraft and 28,000 engines have been brought back to life. In place of a hunting site tor Spanish grondees, this is the restingl place and training locale for hundreds of crack naval aviators and t eir jet powered, supersonic steeds. No longer a haven for un- fortunate miners, this naval air station is a bustling locale of high- stanolard employment for some 7800 civilians and an approximate 3500 naval personnel who pump some S63 million annually into surrounding community coffers, Instead of a city tor a select Chinese tong, this is home to 2000 Navy personnel on short duty , plus tour attack aircraft carriers, a seaplane tender, sixteen aircraft squadrons and numerous other fleet units. The keel for this naval atlas was laid in December 1917, when a young visionary, Iohn I. Mulvany, decided the island would be ideal tor a naval base. Through his efforts. studies were made by several special Congressional Committees, and alter much legislation, President Igooseigelt accepted the land from the City of Alameda in lune 1936. ost: . This Sl transaction changed Alameda's destiny, for in 1937 Congress appropriated 515,000,000 to begin work. The two-mile strip of mud border- ing an Italian truck tarmer's cabbage patch and the crumbling ruins of the historical 20 Mule Team Borax soap factory now serves as the foundation for the 2,468-acre, Sl0U,0O0,000 naval air giant. Construction began February 24, 1938, when dredges began pumping the mountain of mud U6 million cubic feetl from the bay's bowels. The station's five runways were under construction. And not too soon, for Pearl Harbor was to be imbrued. Although on that day of intamy, air activity was only partially restricted, rnost of the white structures now adorning the landscape were but gaunt fingers grasping for the sky. The call to arms was sounded and the morning muster increased from 200 civilian and naval .personnel on commissioning day, November 1, 1940, to many thousands on VI Day. Instead of folding up like many installations throughout the country, Alameda has continued to grow since WW II, and its many arms and legs have grown progres- sively with it. For instance: This station's overhaul and repair facility is the largest on the West Coast and one of the most complete in'the country. If placed in cr straight line, the aircraft and engines that have been rocessed in its shops would stretch from Oakland to Sacramento. Eike all beginnings, it too was a small one, ln Ianuar 1942, the depart- ment got its first job: one whole SOC-l, for overhaul, 'lIoday, an average ot 675 aircraft and 2,300 engines are repaired and overhauled yearly. OcSR's modern shops can manufacture, if necessary, over 70 percent of all aircraft parts in existence today. sv - -.A . . . as .. v..-,.f -. V -Y--M ' ,,,,,,, , , , -. -.- . .- T - ,ss----A -A - - -- 2 - - -' rxfrwtz ' ' ' ' ' 'Q' 'V ' - , :-:-:- -- ' . 1 t 'Mp , Q .75 'fr iimlifx W ., I ' ' , r T x , ' fig' ,, 't -V bt, ' .yr will . Z - .wr V I tr - - ss? s 5-is I ig I V ,C ', , A C ' . ' C l 5 , s. I :ie H . . is e-as si. N , ' , , , - ' 'Q.'JJ,E,L'.A ee 4 ,.., . ,.-.-4.22- .... .-. .. 4..'. wg '....JA J . ,rf r' PS'

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Typical Service Personnel at Alameda is this employee of Public Works being congratulated by CAPT Farrmgton for his long and continuous work record without sick leave , The Supply department is the business center of the station. And bi business it is, too. In addition to support of the fleet and this commons? it takes care of three outlying stations: Naval Air Facility, Monterey, Calif., and Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Fallon, Nevada, and Auxiliary Landing Field, Crows Landing, Calif. This vast supply structure is manned by 935 civilians and some 270 Navy personnel Considering its size one would think it took a long time abormn Not so Supply came into being April 1 1940 with the arrival of a upply Officer and five civilians The office was set up in a shack located near what is now the Stations main gate By October 1940 a building was completed to the extent that office space was occupied Since over 100 acres of storage space has been con structed and filled This space houses 275 000 items of material peculiar to aeronautical operations with a running inventory of S470 000 000 In 1951 the Naval Au' Station acquired from the regents of the University of California seventy six acres of land for the erection of four new warehouses In 1954 this 760 000 square feet of additional storage space was completed In October the first electronic computer to be installed on an aviation facility of the Navy will come to Alameda It is ex pected to pay for itself by annually During the years of its favorite for many thousands shore duty here this is the 1964 and thereafter save some S980 000 existence NAS Alameda has become a of Nav men In addition to the 2000 on home or Commander Fleet Air Alameda and his staff the attack aircraft carriers USS HANCOCK USS RANGER USS CORAL SEA USS MIDWAY and sea lane tender USS SALIS BURY SOUND Carrier Air Groups 2 and 9 atrol S uadrons 9 19 47 Tactical Air Control Squadron 12 Fleet Airborne Eectronics Training Unit Pacific Pacific Fleet Air Intelligence Training Center and Com manders Carrier Divisions l 3 and 7 Throughout its nineteen formative years NAS Alameda has been reared by eleven Commanding Officers The resent Captain Elwin L Farrington with the aid of his Executive Of icer Commander Iaok D Martin is bent on guiding this Station to an even more able and proficient standard as a weapon for peace and national defense And today on considering the progress of the airplane since two courageous bicycle mechanics dared the unknown and nosed a con traption of cloth sticks and wire off the dunes of Kitty Hawk in 1903 Bay Area residents shake their heads in wonderment Then they peer out their windows at the 19 year old naval air station nestling in their bay or watch sleek aircraft carriers movin in and out of their harbor and shake their heads again Many dont now how it all was accom plxshed so swiftly but most know why And so does any contemplative adversary Marrme Barracks wins e trophy for Field Day activities FW WN.