Existing comment:
After taking over the Army's facilities in the late 1930s, the Navy gradually built up the station. The first big naval construction project included additional hangars, a carrier pier, and runway paving.
After the beginning of the war, the Navy built up San Diego into one of the largest, if not the largest, NAS in the US Navy's establishment. The headquarters of the Commander of the Naval Air Forces -- Pacific and the Commander of Fleet Air West Coast were located at San Diego. In 1942, NATS established a terminal on the station and the Naval Air Center San Diego was created to command the Naval aviation complex in Southern California. The largest growth of the Air Center took place in 1943 as the training command and aircraft manufacturers reached full production.
The statistics tracking San Diego's wartime activities speak for themselves:
* The tower logged 1400 to 1800 takeoffs per day for a wartime total of 1,203,032 takeoffs and 1,195,837 landings.
* An average of 1,200 aircraft were on board at any time with 2,538 present on VJ-Day.
* A total of 30,269 air craft were ferried to/from the station and 13,891 loaded on ships.
* 350,000 men received training on the station, including 16,000 enlisted air gunners and 4,000 pilots.
* The airfield had the world's largest paved landing area including two 6,000-foot heavy duty concrete runways..
* By the end of the war, San Diego had four aircraft carrier piers, 20 hangars, and one of the largest Assembly and Repair Departments in the Navy.
* Peak Naval personnel reached over 14,000 plus an additional 8,000 civilians.
* NATS occupied two hangars with the capacity to handle six transports at one time.
* The total investment reached $57.5 million. |