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Pensacola Navy Yard
The site of old Pensacola Navy Yard and present Naval Air Station is located on the north shore of Pensacola Bay, approximately six miles west of the city of Pensacola, Florida.
In April 1824 the Board of navy Commissioners informed Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard that there should be a naval depot on some part of the coast of Florida. On 25 February 1825, a bill authorizing a navy yard and depot at Pensacola was passed by the Senate, and the House gave its approval on 3 March 1825. Commodore Warrington became the first commandant of the navy yard on 20 April 1826. Being so far removed from supply centers such as Boston and New York, Warrington proposed using slaves as unskilled laborers and, in so doing "set the example for all other commandants of the yard before the Civil War."
Construction proceeded slowly. In June 1829 Commo. John Rodgers, president of the Board of Navy Commissioners, suggested that before additional improvements be made both the secretary and President Andrew Jackson should further investigate its capacity to protect American commerce and suppress piracy in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies. He pointed out the difficulties of "ingress and egress at all times; and more particularly the high prices of labor and provisions, and the uncertainty and difficulty of obtaining mechanics and laborers." He went on to suggest that Pensacola did not possess the necessary attributes essential for the needs of the Navy. His recommendation went unheeded.
The mild Pensacola climate permitted year-round out-of-doors work, but with arrival of the summer months, the northern mechanics usually returned home out of fear of yellow fever, often forcing contractors to suspend work early in June. Pensacola experienced intermittent yellow fever epidemics throughout the nineteenth century, which significantly contributed to the slow development of the navy yard.
Pensacola's isolation from the eastern industrial cities and its lack of human and natural resources impeded the yard's development. In addition, transportation to and from Pensacola was limited to a steamboat line that originated in Mobile, AL, and terminated in Charleston, SC. The secretary of the Navy reported to Congress in 1842 that no general plan for the yard had yet been agreed upon. In 1860, a railroad connecting Montgomery, Mobile, and Pensacola was completed, only to be largely destroyed during the Civil War. With the construction of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad in 1883, Pensacola finally had connections with railroads on the East Coast.
In 1898, when the United States went to war with Spain over affairs in Cuba, Pensacola grew in importance. Secretary of the Navy John D. Long reported in 1901 that for the first time since the Civil War the Pensacola yard was "in a position to expedite repairs to vessals of war with efficiency and dispatch." An entirely new machine shop with electrically operated equipment was among the improvements. A wooden floating dry dock was in use. And, in 1902, a floating dry dock purchased from Spain for $300,000 was towed from Havana, Cuba; it had an overall length of 450 feet and width of 87 feet between the inside walls.
On 20 October 1911, the Pensacola Navy Yard was officially closed. Three years later, the aviation unit from Annapolis, MD-- consisting of nine officers, twenty-three enlisted men, seven aircraft, and portable hangars--arrived at Pensacola.
When Congress passed a declaration of war against Germany on 6 April 1917, construction activity accelerated at the station. when the conflict ended on 11 November 1918, over 100 additional structures, ranging from seaplane hangars to barracks, had been added to the station. Four temporary camps were established: Camp Bennett, Camp Mustin, Camp Saufley and Camp Bronson. Flight training at the station now included instruction in aerial gunnery, bombing, navigation, photography, signaling, radio, aircraft rigging, and orientation in plane and engine structure. The great demand for naval aviators made the implementation of a training program necessary. Elementary and advanced flight training were given at the Pensacola Naval Air Station until May 1918, when it was designated as the advanced training station for naval aviation. By the end of the war, the Pensacola Naval Air Station was not only the largest station of its kind in the US, but also, the world.
The Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley (CV-1) was based at the Pensacola station for several months in 1922 and again in 1923. And the Lexington (CV-3) arrived in Pensacola in March 1928 to carry out further experiments in naval aviation.
During World War II thousands of naval pilots received their training at Pensacola and its six auxiliary fields. In May 1944, the training fields graduated 1,411 pilots, or 412 more than were turned out during the entire World War I training period.
During the Korean War the Navy was making the transition from propellers to jets. Even so, NAS Pensacola produced 6,000 aviators between 1950 and 1953.
Pilot training at Pensacola increased during much of the 1960s and early 1970s to meet the demands of the Vietnam War. During the war the production of naval aviators increased from a low of 1,413 in 1962 to a high of 2,552 in 1968.
Today, NAS Pensacola still trains aviators. It is also home to the naval Aerospace Medical Institute and the Blue Angels--a group of pilots who give flight demonstrations for the public. It is also home port of USS Lexington (AVT 16) a veteran warship used to qualify students in the art of flying from and landing on a seagoing airfield.
The Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola has attracted over a million people since its dedication in April 1975.
Sources:
- Coletta, Paolo E., Ed. United States Navy and Marine Corps Bases, Domestic. London: Greenwood Press, 1985. Ppgs. 463-475.
- "History (Naval Air Station Pensacola)"
