Naval Auxiliary Air Station Chincoteague was a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Auxiliary Air Station near

Chincoteague Island Chincoteague may refer to: Geography in the United States * Chincoteague Bay, a bay on the coast of Maryland and Virginia * Chincoteague Channel, a channel in Virginia connecting Chincoteague Bay and Chincoteague Inlet *Chincoteague Inlet, an inlet ...

, Virginia. In 1941, the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; early the following year, the Germans torpedoed two merchant ships off the

Assateague Assateague Island is a long barrier island located off the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean. The northern two-thirds of the island is in Maryland while the southern third is in Virginia. The Maryland secti ...

coast. To guard the coast, the United States Army established two small posts on Virginia's Eastern Shore, one each at Accomac and Chincoteague. The Navy established the Chincoteague Naval Auxiliary Air Station in 1943, across from Chincoteague on the mainland. One young pilot being trained there, future president

George Herbert Walker Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, got in trouble for "buzzing" the house of a young woman he had met at a dance.* In 1959, NASA acquired the former Naval Auxiliary Air Station Chincoteague, and engineering and administrative activities were moved to this location. In 1974, the Wallops Station was named

Wallops Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddar ...

. The name was changed to

Wallops Flight Facility Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard ...

in 1981, when it became part of

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

References

{{reflist 1941 establishments in Virginia Chincoteague, Virginia Military installations in Virginia Chincoteague Closed installations of the United States Navy