Aviation Cadet Thanas inspects an airplane engine.
Image: Library of Congress
One year before the outbreak of World War II, a U.S. congressional board found that the Navy had insufficient training facilities to deal with a potential emergency demand for new pilots.
With the consultation of Texas Representative Lyndon B. Johnson, the Navy commissioned a new air training station on Corpus Christi Bay in March 1941.
That year, 800 flight instructors were brought to Corpus Christi and put to work training 300 cadets each month. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that rate nearly doubled.
More than 35,000 aviators earned their wings at NAS Corpus Christi before the end of the war, including future President George H.W. Bush, who graduated in 1943 just days before his 19th birthday.
In 1942, Office of War Information photographer Howard R. Hollem visited the air station and documented Navy cadets and members of the National Youth Administration as they assembled, repaired, and trained with a variety of aircraft destined for distant theaters of war.
Navy N2S primary land planes.
Image: Library of Congress
A sailor tries on a new type of protective clothing and gas mask for use in chemical warfare.
Image: Library of Congress
Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval Air Base, supervises Charles Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan.
Image: Library of Congress
Jesse Rhodes Waller, A.O.M., third class, tries out a 30-caliber machine gun he has just installed in a Navy plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Working inside the nose of a PBY, Elmer J. Pace learns the construction of Navy planes. As an NYA trainee at the Naval Air Base, he gets practical experience. After about eight weeks, he will go into civil service as a sheet metal worker.
Image: Library of Congress
Learning to work a cutting machine, two NYA employees receive training to fit them for important work. After eight weeks they will be eligible for civil service jobs at the Naval Air Base.
Image: Library of Congress
Doris Duke works on reconditioning spark plugs in the Assembly and Repair Department.
Image: Library of Congress
Jesse Rhodes Waller, A.O.M., third class, tries out a .30-caliber machine gun he has just installed on a Navy plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Mildred Webb, an NYA trainee at the base, learns to operate a cutting machine in the Assembly and Repair Department.
Image: Library of Congress
Cadet L. Deitz boards a plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Cowler Lorena Craig works on the tail of a plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Virginia Young, right, a Pearl Harbor widow, is a supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department of the Naval Air Base. Her job is to find convenient and comfortable living quarters for women workers from out of the state, like Ethel Mann, who operates an electric drill.
Image: Library of Congress
Eloise J. Ellis is a senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Department. She buoys morale in her department by arranging suitable living conditions for out-of-state employees and by helping them with their personal problems.
Image: Library of Congress
Ensign Noressey and Cadet Thenics.
Image: Library of Congress
J.D. Estes loads munitions into a plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Aviation Ordnance Mate Jesse Rhodes Waller prepares to install a .30-caliber machine gun in a Navy PBY plane.
Image: Library of Congress
J.D. Estes, a seven-year veteran of the Navy, hefts a machine gun to be installed in a plane.
Image: Library of Congress
J.D. Estes tests the sights on a newly installed machine gun.
Image: Library of Congress
Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, paints an insignia on an airplane wing.
Image: Library of Congress
Aviation cadets in training.
Image: Library of Congress
Assembly and Repairs Dept. mechanic Mary Josephine Farley works on a Wright Whirlwind motor.
Image: Library of Congress
Oyida Peaks rivets as part of her NYA training to become a mechanic in the Assembly and Repair Department.
Image: Library of Congress
Sailor mechanics refuel an SNC advanced training plane.
Image: Library of Congress
Cadet L. Deitz boards a plane.
Image: Library of Congress
A PBY flying boat undergoes engine testing.
Image: Library of Congress
Eloise J. Ellis, senior supervisor in the Assembly and Repairs Dept., speaks with a colleague.
Image: Library of Congress
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