Naval Air Station DeLand
Naval Air Station DeLand | ||
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Coordinates | 29°03′59″N 81°17′02″W / 29.06639°N 81.28389°W | |
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Naval Air Station DeLand was a United States Naval Air Station located in DeLand, Florida from 1942 to 1946.[1] After the war, the airfield and associated infrastructure was redeveloped into DeLand Municipal Airport.
History
The City of DeLand began developing a civilian airport in the 1920s, with the first asphalt runway laid ‘’c.’’ 1936.
In 1942, the City of DeLand donated the airport facility to the
The first aircraft to arrive at NAS DeLand were the Hudsons,
Between PBO-1, PV-1 and PB4Y-2 training operations, several of the U.S. Navy's former and present day maritime patrol and reconnaissance (VP) squadrons operating the Lockheed P-3 Orion and Boeing P-8 Poseidon trace their squadron lineage to being established at NAS DeLand with these earlier aircraft during World War II.[5]
When the SBD Dauntless dive bombers began to arrive, along with pilots and crew members, Ventura training was scaled back.
Samuel Hynes, who in later life was a professor at Yale University, the author of numerous books, and a participant in documentary films made by Ken Burns, was a Marine pilot in World War II. He recounts learning to fly Dauntless dive bombers at DeLand:
The planes on the flight line were old; they had come from fleet duty . . . Like the planes, our instructors were combat veterans . . . who had been to the Pacific theater, had seen the islands, and Japanese planes in the air, had dropped real bombs on real enemy targets, and had been shot at . . . [they showed us how] to dive an airplane straight toward the earth, and to drop a bomb while diving. This is the most unnatural action possible in a plane, a kind of defiance of all life-preserving instincts . . .
In Florida in 1944 one dive-bomber pilot died every day . . .
[Off duty, when visiting Daytona Beach, there] seemed to be no laws that governed the behavior of Marine pilots . . . the police might scold, but they never arrested us.[6]
In 1944, training operations in the Grumman F6F Hellcat carrier-based fighter also commenced at NAS DeLand, as well as an Advanced Carrier Navigation school for replacement pilots.[7]
Because support functions often exceeded the capability of the air station's uniformed officers, sailors and Marines, many of DeLand's citizens were also employed at the base in administrative and support roles and were paid wages that were a significant improvement over those the community had seen during the recently concluded Great Depression.[8]
Military Training and Exercises
Nine Mile Point on Lake George was also under NAS DeLand's control and was used as a practice bombing site with a Navy
NAS DeLand also had responsibility for
The airfield at New Smyrna Beach refueled and rearmed aircraft practicing landings at Outlying Field Spruce Creek and conducting target practice over the Atlantic Ocean. These aircraft occasionally carried 500 pound bombs when they were over the ocean in the event any German U-boats were spotted.
Decommissioning
Following the end of World War II, the base closed as an active naval installation on 15 March 1946. Its control tower also closed and ownership of the air station returned to the City of DeLand as an uncontrolled civilian airport.[8] After the city resumed control of the field, it became DeLand Municipal Airport, a role it continues to this day.
Stetson University College of Law
From 1946 to 1953, the base was also home to Stetson University College of Law.[10] The law school was relocated to Gulfport (St. Petersburg), Florida, in 1954.[11]
Located in the historic
References
- ^ "Home". delandnavalairstation.org.
- ^ a b "Florida in WWII – Historic Sites and Resources". Flheritage.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2005. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
- ^ a b "Lockheed PBO Hudson, Lockheed R4O Super Electra, by Jack McKillop".
- ^ "Warbird Alley: Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer".
- ^ "VPNAVY – VP-ML-1 History Summary Page – VP Patrol Squadron". vpnavy.com.
- ^ Hynes, Samuel (1988). Flights of Passage. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, pp.92-95.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b "West Volusia Historical Society". Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
- ^ "Pine Castle Bombing Range".
- ^ Swygert and Vause, Florida's First Law School: A History of Stetson University College of Law, p. 203
- ^ Swygert and Vause, p. 241
- The Orlando Sentinel– via Newspapers.com.
- The Orlando Sentinel– via Newspapers.com.
- The Orlando Sentinel. Photo by Barbara V. Perez – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "History of the U.S. Navy NASTY Class Patrol Torpedo Fast". PTF 3 Restoration Project. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
- ^ Luebbers, Ted (21 November 2019). "The DeLand Naval Air Station Museum". Hangar Flying. Experimental Aircraft Association.
External links
Media related to Chief Master at Arms House at Wikimedia Commons