History
In 1927, wetlands at the west end of Alameda Island on the east shore of San Francisco Bay were filled to form an airport with an east/west runway, three hangars, an administration building, and a yacht harbor. The airport site included the Alameda Terminal of the First Transcontinental Railroad (California Historical Landmark #440). By 1930, United States Army Air Corps operations referred to the site as Benton Field. Pan American World Airways used the yacht harbor as the California terminal for China Clipper trans-Pacific flights beginning in 1935. The China Clipper terminal is designated California Historical Landmark #968.
On 1 June 1936, the city of Alameda, California ceded the airport to the United States government a few months before the Army discontinued operations from the field. Pan American World Airways shifted its terminal to Treasure Island in 1939 for the Golden Gate International Exposition. Congressional appropriations passed in 1938 for construction of naval air station facilities for two carrier air wings, five seaplane squadrons and two utility squadrons. Appropriations were increased in 1940 for construction of two seaplane hangars and an aircraft carrier berthing pier, and naval operations began on 1 November 1940. Fleet Air Wing 8 began patrol and scouting missions following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In April 1942, the USS Hornet (CV-8) loaded at Alameda the 16 B-25 aircraft that would take part in the Doolittle Raid on Japan.
Air support training unit No. 2 at Alameda included the fleet radar operator's school, Link celestial navigation Trainer school, and aviation storekeeper school. As World War II continued, Alameda became headquarters for a system of auxiliary airfields:
- Arcata Auxiliary Airfield
- Clear Lake Outlying Field
- Concord Outlying Field
- Crescent City Outlying Field
- Crows Landing Naval Auxiliary Air Station
- Fallon Auxiliary Airfield
- Half Moon Bay Outlying Field
- Hollister Auxiliary Airfield
- King City Auxiliary Airfield
- Livermore Auxiliary Airfield
- Monterey Auxiliary Airfield
- Oakland Auxiliary Airfield
- Paso Robles Outlying Field
- San Francisco Auxiliary Airfield
- San Luis Obispo Outlying Field
- Santa Rosa Outlying Field
- Treasure Island Auxiliary Airfield
- Tulare Lake Outlying Field
- Vernalis Auxiliary Airfield (Vernalis, California)
- Watsonville Auxiliary Airfield
Alameda remained an important naval base through the Cold War. From 1949 to 1953, the Navy based the Lockheed R6V Constitution—the largest airplane ever listed on the Navy inventory—at NAS Alameda. The two prototypes regularly flew between nearby NAS Moffett Field and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The base was the focus for northern California United States Navy Reserve drill after 1961. Runways were lengthened for jet aircraft, and the airport was renamed Nimitz Field in 1967 following the death of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Nuclear powered aircraft carriers were home ported at Alameda into the 1990s, and thousands of local civilians were employed overhauling aircraft at the naval aviation depot.
Read more about this topic: Naval Air Station Alameda
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