Naval Station Ingleside was 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 ...

base in Ingleside,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It was on the northern shore of

Corpus Christi Bay Corpus Christi Bay is a scenic semi-tropical bay on the Texas coast found in San Patricio and Nueces counties, next to the major city of Corpus Christi. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Mustang Island, and is fed by the Nueces River ...

, 12 miles northeast of the city of Corpus Christi, about 130 miles south of

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

and approximately 170 miles southwest of

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 ...

. This region is known as the Coastal Bend. The Naval Station was situated aside the Corpus Christi ship channel, which links the Port of Corpus Christi with the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. NS Ingleside was one of three South Texas installations that comprise Naval Region South.

History

Naval Station Ingleside was first authorized in the

National Defense Authorization Act The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is any of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress oversees the de ...

for Fiscal Year 1987 sponsored by Sen.

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

. Groundbreaking took place on February 20, 1988 and on April 9, 1990, the Station and the community dedicated the main thoroughfare providing access from the community to the Station, Hayden W. Head Boulevard. In September 1990, enough construction had been completed that personnel moved from temporary office and working spaces in the community onto the station and the waterfront was dedicated. The station was completed when the Station accepted its Headquarters Building on December 14, 1990. The USS ''Scout'' became the first ship based at Ingleside on June 25, 1992, and the station was placed in an "operation" status on July 6, 1992, during the same ceremony that marked the Station's first change of command. Naval Station Ingleside was originally constructed to accommodate a battle group, with a massive 1,100 ft pier, additional berthing space provided along two quay walls, and a heavy-weather mooring system designed to withstand category 2 hurricanes. That Battle Group was initially meant to comprise the training aircraft carrier USS ''Lexington'', the battleship USS ''Wisconsin'', and their surface action group, however changes in the Navy's force structure caused these ships to be decommissioned. In 1991, Secretary of the Navy Henry L. Garrett III decided to make Ingleside the homeport of the Navy's Mine Warfare Force, comprised ''Avenger''-class mine countermeasures ships, ''Osprey''-class coastal minehunters, and the command and control ship USS ''Inchon''.

Closure

On August 24, 2005, the

2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission preliminary list was released by the United States Department of Defense on May 13, 2005. It was the fifth Base Realignment and Closure ("BRAC") proposal generated since the process was created in ...

(BRAC Commission) voted to close Naval Station Ingleside. On September 9, 2009, USS ''Sentry'' was the last of the Minesweepers from NS Ingleside to arrive in their new homeport of

Naval Base San Diego Naval Base San Diego is a United States Navy base in San Diego, California. It is the world's second largest surface ship naval base. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the United States Pacific Fleet, consisting of over 50 ships ...

leaving no ships homeported at the base. On March 3, 2010, the last sailor deployed overseas from NS Ingleside returned from

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

. The base officially shut down on April 30, 2010. The Navy returned ownership of the main base property to the Port of Corpus Christi. The Port of Corpus Christi sold the pier to Flint Hills Resources for $8.5 million and the remainder of the station to a subsidiary of

Occidental Petroleum Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the ...

in two packages for $82.1 million and $7 million.

References

External links

Archive of Official website
via archive.org
Canyon Port
{{TXMilitary Naval Stations of the United States Navy Military installations in Texas Military installations closed in 2010 NS Ingleside Closed installations of the United States Navy