Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

naval air base located six miles (10 km) southeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

(CBD) of Corpus Christi, in

Nueces County, Texas Nueces County ( ) is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 353,178, making it the 16th-most populous List of counties in Texas#List, county in the state. The county seat is Corpu ...

History

A naval air station for Corpus Christi had been proposed since the mid-1930s, and the city's

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

, Richard M. Kleberg, supported it. But it remained a low priority construction project for the U.S. Navy as late as January 9, 1940. (The Kleberg family and Roy Miller both supported

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was the 32nd vice president of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1941, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A member of the ...

's quest for the 1940 presidential nomination.) Rep.

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

made himself a key Texas ally of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's bid for a third term, and the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

told the Navy Department to consult Johnson, and heed his advice, on Navy contracts in Texas. By February 1940, the project was on the Navy's preferred list. Brown & Root, a

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

firm, shared the construction contract with another New Deal supporter, Henry Kaiser; the president personally signed the (first) cost plus fixed fee contract June 13, 1940. The Roosevelt campaign in Texas no longer had a shortage of cash. The official step leading to the construction of the Naval Air Station was initiated by the

75th United States Congress The 75th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 1 ...

in 1938. A board found that a lack of training facilities capable of meeting an emergency demand for pilots constituted a grave situation. They recommended the establishment of a second air training station, and further, that it be located on Corpus Christi Bay. NAS Corpus Christi was commissioned by its first Commanding Officer,

CAPT Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Alva Berhard, on March 12, 1941. The first flight training started on May 5, 1941. SNJ-4s at NAS Corpus Christi c1943

In 1941, 800 instructors provided training for more than 300 student pilots a month. The training rate nearly doubled after the

bombing of Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the ...

. By the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, more than 35,000 naval aviators had earned their wings there. Corpus Christi provided intermediate flight training in World War II, training naval pilots to fly SNJ, SNV, SNB,

OS2U The Vought OS2U Kingfisher is an American Aircraft catapult, catapult-launched observation floatplane. It was a compact mid-wing monoplane, with a large central float and small stabilizing floats. Performance was modest because of its low-powere ...

, PBY, and N3N type airplanes. In 1944 it was the largest naval aviation training facility in the world. The facility covered , and had 997 hangars, shops, barracks, warehouses and other buildings. Future

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

was the youngest pilot to receive his wings at NAS Corpus Christi in June 1943. NAS Corpus Christi also was home to the

Blue Angels The Blue Angels, formally named the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, are a Aerobatics, flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.. Blue Angels official site. Formed in 1946, the unit is the second oldest formal aerobatics ...

from 1951 to 1954. It also served as a

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

Tracking station in the early 1960s.

2002 murder

On June 27, 2002,

Alfred Bourgeois Alfred Bourgeois (June 20, 1964 – December 11, 2020) was a former truck driver who was executed by the U.S. federal government in 2020. Bourgeois was convicted of the murder of his toddler daughter Jakaren Harrison (nicknamed JaJa), whom he se ...

, a long-haul truck driver who often took his family with him on work trips, was making a delivery at NAS Corpus Christi. As he backed his truck into a loading dock, his 2-year-old daughter accidentally jostled her potty chair and tipped it over. Bourgeois then murdered his daughter after he slammed her head into the interior of his truck with force. He then left her, mortally injured, to carry on with his work. His daughter was found unresponsive by the side of his tractor-trailer. She died the following day and Bourgeois was charged with her murder. Because the murder occurred on a military base, which is classed as federal property, Bourgeois was tried in a federal court as opposed to a state court. In 2004, he was found guilty of her murder and was sentenced to death. In 2020, he was executed by the federal government.

2020 shooting

On May 21, 2020, a motorist crashed through a northern perimeter gate at NAS Corpus Christi, activating vehicle barriers that stopped the vehicle. The driver then got out and opened fire before being shot and killed. A

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

police officer was shot but was protected by a ballistic vest. Officials with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

announced the incident was

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

-related and a second

person of interest "Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...

may be at large. The shooter was later identified as Adam Alsalhi, a 20-year-old Corpus Christi resident born in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, who had expressed support for

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( or : Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, . Organization of Jihad's Base in the Arabian Peninsula), or AQAP is a Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamic extremism, Islamist militant organization which s ...

. The incident was the second fatal shooting and the fourth security incident that caused NAS Corpus Christi to be locked down since February 2019.

Current operations

Today, the Naval Aviator training program at NAS Corpus Christi is much longer, approximately 18 months, due to the increased complexity of today's aircraft. Currently, Training Air Wing FOUR produces approximately 400 newly qualified aviators each year via the "Maritime Pipeline" for shore-based U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard fixed-wing jet and turboprop aircraft, as well as a limited number of NATO/Allied/Coalition military pilots for similar aircraft. Training Air Wing FOUR consists of four squadrons. VT-27 and VT-28 handle primary training in the T-6B Texan II, a single engine turboprop aircraft. VT-31 and VT-35 provide advanced training in the twin engine T-44C Pegasus aircraft along with the Textron T-54A. Other aircraft found at NAS Corpus Christi include the P-3 Orions and General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilita ...

. In addition to U.S. Navy Student Naval Aviators, VT-31 and VT-35 also train Student Naval Aviators from the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard. The station employs officer, enlisted and civilian personnel serving in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the military services of numerous

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

/Allied/Coalition partner nations. In support of the base's training mission are three nearby outlying landing fields owned by the Navy: Naval Outlying Field Waldron, which is southwest of the Naval Air Station, Naval Outlying Field Cabaniss, which is west of the Naval Air Station and Naval Outlying Field Goliad which is north of the Naval Air Station. NAS Corpus Christi is also home to the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD), the largest helicopter repair facility in the world and an unusual arrangement of an Army installation located on a Naval facility.

Units

Major Commands

*Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) * Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) *Marine Aviation Training Support Group (MATSG-22) *Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi (NHCCC)

Wings

*Training Air Wing FOUR (TW4)

Squadrons

Other Tenants

* U.S. Navy Reserve Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) *Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Jacksonville Det Corpus Christi (FISC JAX Det Corpus Christi) *Marine Aviation Training Support Group (MATSG) *

(CBP)

Facilities and service also located on the installation

* Corpus Christi Army Depot * Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi *Commissary *DLA Distribution Corpus Christi, Texas *Naval Aviation Forecast Detachment Corpus Christi *Navy Exchange *Navy Lodge * Surveillance Support Center (SSC) * Veterinary Treatment Facility

References

External links

* * {{authority control Corpus Christi, Naval Air Station Military installations established in 1941 Military in Corpus Christi, Texas Military installations in Texas Buildings and structures in Nueces County, Texas Populated coastal places in Texas 1941 establishments in Texas