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President signs appropriation for Texas aviation station
On this day in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the $25 million appropriations bill for the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi. Construction began on June 30, and the dedication was held on March 12, 1941. The station, at Flour Bluff, eventually occupied 20,000 acres in three counties. It initially trained naval pilots, navigators, gunners, and radio operators. By 1948, when the station became a permanent military installation, it was home to the Naval Air Advanced Training Command. The precision flight team the Blue Angels was headquartered there from 1949 to 1955. In 1959 the navy converted the major repair facility to the army's Aeronautical Depot Maintenance Center, while the navy continued to train flight crews for multiengine land and sea planes. In 1986 the station's airfield was named Truax Field, in honor of Lt. Myron Milton Truax, United States Navy. In 2001 the base served as home to several navy commands, including the Chief of Naval Air Training.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- NAVAL AIR STATION, CORPUS CHRISTI
- NAVAL AIR STATION, BEEVILLE
- NAVAL AIR STATION, KINGSVILLE
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- "Father of black Baptists in Texas" dies in La Marque (1898)
- Fraudulent petition seeks organization of Loving County (1893)
- First Texan on U.S. Supreme Court dies in New York City (1977)
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