Description

NAS Alameda Plaque

A hand-crafted 14-inch plaque of the Naval Air Station Alameda. Each plaque is carved from Mahogany and handpainted to provide a piece you’ll love!

• Diameter – 14 inches
• Made from Mahogany
• US Veteran-Owned Business

Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda) was a United States Navy Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay.[1]

NAS Alameda had two runways: 13–31 measuring 8,000 ft × 200 ft (2,438 m × 61 m) and 07-25 measuring 7,200 ft × 200 ft (2,195 m × 61 m). Two helicopter pads and a control tower were also part of the facilities.

History
In 1927, wetlands at the west end of Alameda Island on the east shore of San Francisco Bay were filled to form an airport (Alameda Airport) with an east–west runway, three hangars, an administration building, and a yacht harbor. The airport site included the Alameda Terminal of the First Transcontinental Railroad (California Historical Landmark #440). By 1930, United States Army Air Corps operations referred to the site as Benton Field. Pan American World Airways used the yacht harbor as the California terminal for China Clipper trans-Pacific flights beginning in 1935. The China Clipper terminal is designated California Historical Landmark #968.

On 1 June 1936, the city of Alameda, California ceded the airport to the United States government a few months before the Army discontinued operations from the field. Pan American World Airways shifted its terminal to Treasure Island in 1939 for the Golden Gate International Exposition. Congressional appropriations passed in 1938 for construction of naval air station facilities for two carrier air wings, five seaplane squadrons and two utility squadrons. Appropriations were increased in 1940 for construction of two seaplane hangars and an aircraft carrier berthing pier. Naval operations began on 1 November 1940.[2] – 1997 Fleet Air Wing 8 began patrol and scouting missions following the attack on Pearl Harbor. In April 1942, USS Hornet loaded at Alameda the 16 B-25 aircraft that would take part in the Doolittle Raid on Japan.[2] From August through December 1944, US President Richard Nixon was assigned to Fleet Air Wing 8 at Naval Air Station Alameda, California.[3]

Air support training unit No. 2 at Alameda included the fleet radar operator’s school, Link celestial navigation trainer school, and aviation storekeeper school.[4] As World War II continued, Alameda became headquarters for a system of auxiliary airfields:[2]Alameda remained an important naval base through the Cold War. From 1949 to 1953, the Navy based the Lockheed R6V Constitution—the largest airplane ever listed on the Navy inventory—at NAS Alameda. The two prototypes regularly flew between nearby NAS Moffett Field and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

During the Vietnam War portion of the Cold War and its later post-Vietnam era, the base was homeport to the aircraft carriers Coral Sea, Hancock, Oriskany, Enterprise, Ranger, and Carl Vinson. NAS Alameda also housed a major aircraft overhaul facility employing thousand of civilian employees that was known as Naval Air Rework Facility (NARF) Alameda and later renamed Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP) Alameda.[2]

The base was also the focus for northern California Naval Air Reserve operations after 1961, hosting various Reserve Force Squadrons attached to Carrier Air Wing Reserve 30 (CVWR-30), also known as CAG-30, equipped with aircraft such as the KA-3 Skywarrior…later replaced by the A-6 Intruder, and the A-4 Skyhawk…later replaced by A-7 Corsair II. Other Naval Air Reserve Force Squadrons external to CVWR-30 flew the Sikorsky H-34 Sea Horse…later replaced by the SH-3 Sea King, the CH-53 Sea Stallion, and MH-53E Sea Dragon. Another land-based squadron under Fleet Logistics Support Wing flew the C-9 Skytrain II. In the 1960s, a Naval Air Reserve unit also flew the P-2 Neptune before relocating to nearby NAS Moffett Field, transitioning to the P-3 Orion, and being established as Reserve patrol squadron in 1970. Runways were lengthened for jet aircraft, and the airfield was renamed Nimitz Field in 1967 following the death of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

The base was closed in 1997 pursuant to Base Realignment and Closure action. Its runways were also closed and the airfield was not reutilized as a civilian airport.