Some stories from The Beam .... 1941-42

Note: Reprinted from Saturday, Feb. 28, 1942, issue of the base newspaper, The Beam

Construction work will begin within ten days on P-4, a new Naval Air Station auxiliary field to be constructed approximately three miles south and east of Kingsville, Texas. The new field, comparable in land area to the Main Station, will consist of two fields with one set of buildings between, providing virtually all the facilities offered on the Main Station, in a somewhat smaller scale.

The site at Kingsville was chosen because it is far enough from the present auxiliary fields to providing a maximum of air space. Due to this distance, it will be necessary to provide complete facilities, independent of  he Main Station. No estimate was released on the anticipated cost of the new field, but it is believed that the plan and personnel will be nearly double that of each of the present auxiliary base fields.

Each of the two fields will consist of four runways, 6,000 feet long and 300 feet wide, with a paved area where they cross. Each field will have two hangars and an A&E Shop. The buildings between the two fields will include an administration building, barracks, dispensary, sewage disposal plant, water reservoir, ground school bachelor officers’ quarters, machine gun range, power plant, station maintenance shop, ship’s service store, recreation facilities, auditorium, and other facilities required by the personnel stationed there.

The new field is a part of the change in program which will limit the training here to intermediate and advanced, with the primary training, now being done here, to be taught in the future only at the aviation reserve bases. The Kingsville field which will be used for advanced training, will be completed by June 30, it is estimated.