History
From Plows to Pistons & Prowlers
On Jan. 17, 1941, almost 11 months before the U.S. entered World War II, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations asked the Commandant of the 13th Naval District to find a location for the re-arming and refueling of Navy patrol planes operating in defense of Puget Sound, should such defense be necessary.
Lake Ozette, Indian Island, Keystone Harbor, Penn Cove and Oak Harbor were considered and later rejected because of mountainous terrain, bluff shorefront, inaccessibility, absence of suf- ficient beaches and lee shores.
But within 10 days, the commanding officer of Naval Air Station Seattle recommended the site of Saratoga Passage on the shores of Crescent Harbor and Forbes Point as a base suitable for seaplane takeoffs and landings under instrument conditions. A narrow strip of land tied Oak Harbor to what is now Maylor's Capehart Housing. Dredging, filling and running water and power lines to the city were under way when at the end of November word came to Find a land plane site.
Clover Valley
On December 8, three workers started a topographic survey of what would become Ault Field, about four miles to the north. The crew would soon grow to 17. None of them were engineers, but with the attack at Pearl Harbor, everyone went to work. Regardless of the weather, there were 175 men on the job at the peak of survey work. Bewildered citizens, caught up in the war effort, signed up for jobs to build the station. There were approximately 20 farms on 4,325 acres. Farmers turned over the titles to their ancestral lands, known for growing some of the finest wheat in the country, to the government for runways and hangars. They quietly moved to other farms in Skagit County. Clover Valley—level, well drained and accessible from any approach—was tailor-made for a landing field. The strategic location, commanding the eastern end of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, guarded the entrance to Puget Sound. It was far enough from populated areas to carry on operational training flights with live loads. The area experienced visual flying conditions about 89 percent of the time and there was plenty of room to grow.
Actual construction of Ault Field started on March 1, 1942. The first plane landed there on Aug. 5, when Lt. Newton Wake Field, a former civil engineer and airline pilot who would later become Operations Officer, brought his SNJ single-engine trainer in with little fanfare. Everyone was busy working on the still-incomplete runway.
Commissioning Day
On Sept. 21, 1942, from the steps of Building 12, Commanding Officer Capt. Cyril Thomas Simard read the orders and the watch was set. U.S. Naval Air Station Whidbey Island was duly commissioned. There were 212 present for the ceremony.
To honor Simard's legacy, Chief of Naval Operations approved NAS Whidbey Island's request to rename Building 12 as "Simard Hall," and as a result, two of Simard's grand-daughters attended the official dedication on June 12, 2010. On Sept. 25, 1943, following the recommendation of the Interdepartmental Air Traffic Control Board, an area 2 1/2miles southeast of Coupeville was approved as an auxiliary Field to serve Naval Station Seattle. Survey work began in February 1943, and work started in March. Outlying Field Coupeville was in use by September. Crews surveyed the Rocky Point area in the summer of 1943. It became the transmitter and machine gun range. Air gunners going to the fleet were trained there.
Patriotic fervor ran high in the early 1940s. The need to train America's fighting force in a hurry was evident here on Whidbey Island.
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