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Naval Air Station Historical Marker
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Photo: David Seibert
Click for Larger Version of Picture
- Naval Air State Historical Marker
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Located inside the main entrance to DeKalb-Peachtree
Airport near the intersection of Airport and Clairmont Rds
33.876966, -84.30408
(Text)
- 1941 * NAVAL AIR STATION
ATLANTA * 1959
Anticipating America's involvement
in a second world war, the government returned to the site of
Camp Gordon in October 1940 and over the next seven months constructed
a 400-acre Naval Reserve Aviation Base at the DeKalb County Airport.
Commission in March 1941, the field's
chief mission was primary flight training of Navy and Marine
Corps aviators. Expanding to meet war needs, the base added training
for instrument flight instructors and in January 1943 was designated
Naval Air Station Atlanta. Training some 3,000 pilots and over
4,000 instructors, NAS Atlanta supported the vast expansion of
naval aviation that proved decisive in the Pacific War against
Japan.
Following World War II, NAS Atlanta
became a Reserve Naval Air Station with nine squadrons (F4U Corsairs,
F6F Hellcats, TMB Avengers, and PBY Catalinas) and trained reservists
to meet the Korean War emergency of 1950-1953.
The evolution of jet fighters and
large patrol bombers prompted the relocation of NAS Atlanta to
the longer runways of Dobbins Air Force Base, Marietta in 1959.
Donated by Veterans of NAS Atlanta.
044-92 GEORGIA HISTORIC
MARKER 1991
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