Naval Air Station Squantum

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Squantum Naval Air Station


Squantum during WWII
IATA: none – ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type Military: Naval Air Station
Operator United States Navy
Location Quincy
In use 1929-1953
Occupants Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard
Elevation AMSL 6 ft / 2 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14/32 4,100 Asphalt
2/20 Asphalt
8/26 Asphalt
Redeveloped

Squantum Naval Air Station was active from the 1929 until 1953. The airport on which it was based actually dates back to 1910. It was based on Squantum Point, located in Quincy, Massachusetts. It also abuts Boston Harbor.

Contents

[edit] History

Early usage of the airfield dates to 1910 when the Massachusetts Naval Militia used the field for training. During WWI, the Navy took the field over and used it for a shipyard and a base for coastal patrols. "Squantum Victory Yard" was constructed specifically for the building of destroyers for the war effort, to free up the Fore River Shipyard for other vessels including the battlecruiser USS Lexington. It it said to have had in 1931 a 30-acre triangular cinder field. It was also said to have had 3 runways, with the longest being an 1,800' east/west strip, along with a 120' x 120' landplane hangar & a 100' x 60' seaplane hangar. In 1940, the base expanded and the shipyard was razed, partially because it was gutted by a previous fire. Yet its location on a peninsula pretty much doomed it during the dawn of the jet age. Interestingly enough, the 1946 & 1949 USGS topo maps labeled the property as “U.S. Naval Reservation”, but did not depict an airfield. Yet the airport's location also doomed it again. It was very close to Logan International Airport. Its proximity was so great that the Boston Logan Instrument Landing System was lined up almost perfectly with Runway 2 of Squantum.

[edit] Squadrons Based There

[edit] Closure

The location of the airport doomed it to be closed in 1953. Operations were moved to the nearby South Weymouth NAS. In 1957, the Navy transferred 5 acres to the Air Force for an electronic research annex, the Squantum Electronics Research Annex. By 1960, the site was labeled "Abandoned Airport."

[edit] Present-Day Usage

Today a marina sits on its northern end. Boston Scientific is also located on the site. A 2,700 foot portion of the primary northwest runway remains undeveloped. Other than that, condominiums and other buildings dot the landscape of the former naval air station.

[edit] Famous People

[edit] See also

[edit] References