WW II Painting Stars at NAS Corpus Christi

Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy painting the American insignia on airplane wings at the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, TX where her husband is a flight instructor. The photo is dated August 1942, early in World War II.

History of Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas

In 1938, a Congressional board determined that there was a grave lack of training facilities capable of meeting an emergency demand for pilots. They recommended the establishment of another air training station, to be located on Corpus Christi Bay.

NAS Corpus Christi was commissioned 12 March 1941 and the first flight training started almost immediately, on 5 May 1941. Former President George Bush was in the third graduating class, June 1943, and the youngest cadet ever to graduate.

In 1941, 800 flight instructors provided training for more than 300 cadets a month. After the bombing attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the training rate nearly doubled. By the end of World War II, more than 35,000 aviators had earned their wings there. Corpus Christi was the only facility in the United States offering primary, basic and advanced training. At one time it was the largest pilot training facility in the world.

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