Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst - Chronology

Chronology

• 1917-1921 Acquired by U.S. Army as an ammunition proving ground. Named Camp Kendrick.
• 1921 Commissioned as a Naval Air Station (NAS) Lakehurst. Captain Frank Taylor Evans, USN, is the first Commanding Officer.
• 1921-1961 Hosted the country's (and, perhaps, the world's) Lighter Than Air (LTA) Center.
• 1937 German Airship Hindenburg catches fire while approaching for a landing.
• 1958 The Naval Air Test Facility (NATF) was established.
• 1961 The Navy's LTA program was terminated, with final disestablishment no later than 1962.
• 1962 The Navy's LTA program is disestablished in November 1962.
• 1973 The Naval Air Engineering Center (NAEC) was relocated from Philadelphia as directed by a Shore Establishment Realignment.
• 1977 NAS and NATF were disestablished and merged into NAEC.
• 1986 Piasecki PA-97 Helistat crashes.
• 1992 The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) was established. NAEC becomes the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakehurst (NAWCADLKE).
• 1994 NAWCADLKE becomes the Naval Air Engineering Station (NAES) for shore station management and the Aircraft Platform Interface (API) Group for technical mission support.
• 1994 NAWCADLKE and the rest of the AIRCRAFT DIVISION reorganize into a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Competency Aligned Organization (CAO).
• 1997 The Aircraft Division and Weapons Division are integrated into the Naval Aviation Systems Team's Competency Aligned Organization.
• February 2004 The installation commanders from Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, the Army's Fort Dix, and McGuire Air Force Base formed a partnership to generate joint solutions for common problems between the three contiguous bases and their tenant commands.
• 2005 The United States Department of Defense announced that Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst would be affected by a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action, merging it with two neighboring military bases, McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix, establishing Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. This will be the first base of its kind in the United States.
• 2010 Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst (NAES Lakehurst) is disestablished on 13 Apr 2010. The same day, Naval Support Activity Lakehurst (NSA Lakehurst) is established as a tenant activity at JB MDL, representing USN/USMC equities for Department of the Navy-specific assest and resources at JB MDL, predominantly those under the cognizance of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). NSA Lakehurst reports to the Commander, Naval Installations Command (CNIC).