Weymouth
Historical Society
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Weymouth Historical Society |
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History
of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station
The Navy’s LTA expansion program was divided into two increments. The first consisted of 27 airships and coastal bases at three locations: the Boston area, the Norfolk area, and somewhere near San Francisco. The second was to consist of 21 additional airships with three additional air stations: the Pacific Northwest., Southern California, and one in Florida from which to patrol the Gulf of Mexico. After a review of several potential sites, a large tract of land in South Weymouth was selected as the most desirable location to construct a new LTA base. Construction began at South Weymouth during September of 1941. The South Weymouth site, an area of 1267 acres within the communities of Weymouth, Abington, Rockland and Hingham, was almost completely undeveloped when the Navy acquired the property. At a cost of $6 million, NAS South Weymouth was the largest wartime construction project on Massachusetts’s south shore. The base was established on March 1, 1942.
Information from the Global Security web site and “The Defender’s History, A historical account of Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Mass”.
The Patriot Squadron Association of Naval Aviation is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Squantum Naval Air Station and the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, Massachusetts. The Shea Naval Aviation Museum is located at the former USN Shea Fitness Center (base gymnasium) at 495 Shea Memorial Drive at SouthField (formerly NAS South Weymouth), in Weymouth Mass, and is now open to the public between 9am - 11am on the last Saturday of every month. There is not a charge to visit the museum... come see us!!
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Weymouth Historical Society, 238 Park Ave, PO Box 56, South Weymouth, Massachusetts 02190 |
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Tele:
(781) 340-1022 |
Founded
in 1879 |
Email:
WeyHistorical@aol.com |
Naval
Air Station South Weymouth was established through the efforts of Captain
Charles E. Rosendahl, Chief of the Navy’s Lighter-Than-Air (LTA)
Program. Rosendahl was looking for an LTA base from which to conduct
submarine surveillance operations over the North Atlantic. Public Act No.
635 of the 76th Congress, passed in June of 1940 and referred to as
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “10,000 Plane Program,” was the
initial act that led to the construction of Naval Air Station South
Weymouth.
The
land surrounding the site is suburban, with a mixture of residential,
industrial, and commercial uses. After acquiring the site in 1941, the
U.S. Navy used it as a Lighter than Air facility for dirigible aircraft
used to patrol the North Atlantic during World War II. The Air Station has
the distinction of being the first airship base proposed in the original
1940 war plan, this base featured both a timber, and a standard steel
hangar. A runway replaced the wood hangar in the 1950s. The facility was
closed at the end of the war, then reopened in 1953 as a Naval Air Station
for aviation training. SOWEY NAS has been in use continuously until
September 30, 1997.
The
mission of SOWEY NAS was to train all assigned units for their
mobilization assignment; to provide administrative coordination and
logistic support to the Marine Air Reserve Training Detachment South
Weymouth and to perform such other functions as directed by the Chief of
Naval Operations and to administer the Naval Reserve Program as directed
by the Chief of Naval Reserve. Activities performed at the site included
aircraft maintenance, refueling, personnel training and housing, and
administrative support services. In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard
operates a buoy maintenance depot on the property through an agreement
with the Navy.
