Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point | |||||||||||||
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Cunningham Field | |||||||||||||
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Other airfield facilities | 5x V/STOL pads | ||||||||||||
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] |
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point (*34°54′03″N 76°52′51″W / 34.9009°N 76.8807°W) (ICAO: KNKT, FAA LID: NKT) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, United States, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and is currently home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
History
Congress authorized Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on 9 July 1941, with an initial appropriation of $14,990,000 for construction and clearing of an 8,000 acre (32 km2) tract of swamps, farms and timberland.
Actual clearing of the site began on 6 August 1941, with extensive drainage and malaria control work. Construction began in November just 17 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On 20 May 1942, the facility was commissioned Cunningham Field, named in honor of the Marine Corps' first aviator, Lieutenant Colonel Alfred A. Cunningham. The completed facility was later renamed Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, after a local post office situated among cherry trees.
Cherry Point's primary
just off the North Carolina coast during 1943.Cherry Point's contribution to the Korean War effort was to provide a steady stream of trained aviators and air crewmen as well as maintenance and support personnel as replacements to forward deployed aviation units.
During the
In
Cherry Point Marines and Navy Corpsmen participated in strike missions and follow-on operations in Afghanistan and its surrounding region during Operation Enduring Freedom, which was initiated on 7 October 2001.
On 8 September 2007, the headquarters building (198) was gutted by a fire.[2] The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Headquarters Building was on 29 July 2009, with completion planned for sometime in 2011.
The air station and its associated support locations occupy more than 29,000 acres (120 km2). Its runway system is large enough that the air station served as an alternate emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle launches out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.[3][4]
In 2013, Cherry Point hosted warfighters, technology teams and testers under the flags of 10 nations and each of the U.S. military services for the 11th Bold Quest coalition demonstration. The
USAF use
On 1 July 1957 the
In addition to the radars on the air station, two unmanned
One of the AN/FPS-8s was damaged by Hurricane Donna in 1960. The radars were turned over to the Navy on 30 April 1960, and the Marine Corps retained the other undamaged AN/FPS-8 radar for a number of years for base air traffic control.
During 1961 M-116 joined the
USAF radar operations continued at MCAS Cherry Point until 1 August 1963 when budget reductions and a general draw-down of antiaircraft radar sites closed the facility.[6][7]
Based units
Flying and notable non-flying units based at MCAS Cherry Point.[8][9][10][11]
United States Marine CorpsMarine Corps Installations – East
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Supported facilities
MCAS Cherry Point also maintains a number of satellite airfields:
- Field Carrier Landing Practice.[12]
- MCOLF Oak Grove, a minimally staffed outlying airfield near Pollocksville, North Carolina specializing in operations on unimproved surfaces in a reduced visibility environments.[13]
- MCOLF Atlantic, an outlying airfield near Atlantic, North Carolina used as an arming and refueling point and base for rotary-wing base supporting training activities in the region.[14]
Several former outlying landing fields have been converted to regional airports, such as
See also
- Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue
- Proposed Naval Outlying Landing Field North Carolina
- United States Marine Corps Aviation
- List of United States Marine Corps installations
- List of airports in North Carolina
- List of USAF Aerospace Defense Command General Surveillance Radar Stations
References
- Notes
- This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps.
- ^ "Airport Diagram – Cherry Point MCAS - Cunningham Fld (KNKT)" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. 21 May 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ^ "Headquarters building badly damaged in fire at Cherry Point Marine base". New Bern Sun Journal. 9 September 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2007.[permanent dead link]
- ^ AirStaO 3121.1A Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine MARINE CORPS AIR STATION (MCAS) CHERRY POINT SPACE SHUTTLE SUPPORT PLAN (SSSP)
- ^ Beard, Steven D.; Leslie A. Ringo; Brian Mader; Estela H. Buchmann; Thomas Tanita. "Space Shuttle Landing and Rollout Training at the Vertical Motion Simulator" (PDF). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
- ^ "Department of Navy Chief Information Officer Mobile - CHIPS Articles: Unprecedented in Complexity and Scope — Bold Quest 13-1". www.doncio.navy.mil.
- ^ Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
- ^ "Information for Cherry Point MCAS, NC".
- ^ "Units". Marine Aircraft Group 14. US Marine Corps. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ^ "MACG28 Units". Marine Air Control Group 28. US Marine Corps. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ^ Kaminski, Tom (2019). "Aircraft of the US Marine Corps". US Navy & Marine Corps Air Power Yearbook 2019. Key Publishing. pp. 93–99.
- ^ "About Us". Fleet Readiness Center East. US Navy. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ^ "History of Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue, NC". Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. United States Marine Corps. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- ^ "History of Marine Corps Outlying Landing Field Oak Grove, NC". Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. United States Marine Corps. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- ^ "History of Marine Corps Outlying Landing Field Atlantic, NC". Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. United States Marine Corps. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- Bibliography
- Shettle Jr., M. L. (2001). United States Marine Corps Air Stations of World War II. Bowersville, Georgia: Schaertel Publishing Co. ISBN 0-9643388-2-3.
- Web
External links
- Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
- MCAS Cherry Point's official DVIDS page
- USMC Life Cherry Point An Insider's Guide to Cherry Point Marine Base
- MCAS Cherry Point at GlobalSecurity.org
- USMC Air Station Cherry Point Overview & PCS Information (MarineCorpsUSA.org)
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective April 18, 2024
- FAA Terminal Procedures for NKT, effective April 18, 2024
- Resources for this U.S. military airport:
- FAA airport information for NKT
- AirNav airport information for KNKT
- ASN accident history for NKT
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KNKT