For Pilots Only

The dune-strewn shore of Flour Bluf Peninsula twelve miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Tex. on the Gulf of Mexico, was once an old camp site where Indians buried their dead. Then it became the favorite hunting, fishing, and picnic grounds of Corpus Christians. Last week the scrub oak peninsula brislted with shiny white hangars, repair shops, buildings of all descriptions. In bright new classrooms, 52 pink-cheeked, khaki-clad youths got their initial instruction. Seventy-five more were due thi week. The U. S. Navy's biggest air station (70% completed) was open 16 months ahead of the original schedule, two in three years ahead of peacetime construction. The Navy was pleased about Corpus Christi.

The Navy's $44,000,000 station, when it is completed next June, will have some 500 buildings, a 17-care assembly & repair shop, a 6,300-ft. seawall, 24 miles of roads a 39-mile railroad, swimming pool, clubroombs, hospitals, barracks, and cabanas along the Gulf shore. It will also have a veteran Navy man for commandant: genial, blue-eyed, imperturbable Captain Alva D. Bernhard, until recently in command of the Aircraft Scouting Force. A third larger than Pensacola, the 4.658-acre air station is not one base but four--three of them fully equipped flying fields within a 15-mile radius of the main station.

When Corpus Christi swings into peak operation in July, its 800 instructors will get 300 raw cadets every month. By that time the Navy's new air station at Jacksonville, Fla. will be at capacity (200 a month) its third air training station, Pensacola, up to 300. But Corpus Christi will be the only station where the full flying course (primary, basic and full advanced training) is given.

From this monthly pool of 800 potential airmen, the Navy hopes to get a peak of 560 pilots a month by next spring. It sorely needs them. Slow in getting under way, the Navy air program produced only 715 pilots last year, bringing its total to 3,639-- a long way short of its immediate goal (15,000 fliers to man a 10,000 plane fleet), of its 1945 objective (25,000 active and reserve pilots) . Best it could hlpe for, even with the 13-month training course cut to seven and a half, was 6,000 graduate pilots, 4,200 more in training by next January. The Navy hopes Corpus Christi will go on breaking records.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.