NAVAL AIR STATION, BEEVILLE. The Naval Air Station at Beeville, also known as Chase Field, was formed in 1943 by the conversion of a municipal airport then under construction into a military airfield. It was named for Lt. Commander Nathan Brown Chase, who was killed on a training mission at Pearl Harbor in 1925. The field was commissioned a naval auxiliary airfield in June 1943. In July 1946, after VJ Day, it was reduced to caretaker status. As a result of the Korean War the field was purchased from the city of Beeville by the navy in August 1952. In November 1953 it was officially designated a naval auxiliary air station. It received almost $13 million under a 1967 military-construction bill. In 1968 its status was elevated to that of full naval air station. It employed approximately 2,500 military and civilian personnel. From its beginning Chase Field conducted the training of naval and marine aviators and ground crews. Jet-aircraft training began in 1954. Training Air Wing Three was established on October 1, 1971, and continued into the 1990s. In 1993 the base was decommissioned.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: N.A.S. Chase Field (Beeville, Texas: Beeville Publishing Company, 1990).

Art Leatherwood