Naval Outlying Field Goliad is a military

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located five

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (6 mi, 9 km) north of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Berclair, Texas Berclair is an unincorporated community in Goliad County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relativel ...

, in Goliad County. It is owned by the

United States 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 ...

. The airfield has two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s, both 8000 feet long by 150 feet wide. Its mission is to support operations of the

Naval Air Training Command The Naval Air Training Command (NATRACOM) is a one star command that conducts flight training of student Naval Aviators, and Naval Flight Officers. Though it does not conduct Naval Aircrew training which is conducted by Naval Education and Trai ...

, specifically Commander, Training Air Wing FOUR located aboard

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is a United States Navy naval air base located six miles (10 km) southeast of the central business district (CBD) of Corpus Christi, in Nueces County, Texas. History A naval air station for Corpus Christi ...

. It is under the control of Commander,

Navy Region Southeast Navy Region Southeast (NAVREGSE or CNRSE) is one of eleven current naval regions responsible to Commander, Navy Installations Command for the operation and management of Naval shore installations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Lou ...

History

Goliad NOLF was originally built by the United States Navy in the 1970s as Chase Naval Air Station Auxiliary Landing Field Berclair and served as an auxiliary airfield for flight training operations at

Naval Air Station Chase Field Naval Air Station Chase Field is a former naval air station located in Beeville, Texas. It was named for Lieutenant Commander Nathan Brown Chase, Naval Aviator #37, who died in 1925 while developing carrier landing techniques for the U.S. Navy. ...

near

Beeville, Texas Beeville is a city in Bee County, Texas, United States, with a population of 12,863 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bee County and home to the main campus of Coastal Bend College. The area around the city contains three prisons oper ...

. The airfield was closed as a result of the 1993

Base Realignment and Closure Commission Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end o ...

that also resulted in the closing of NAS Chase Field. Goliad County purchased the airfield from the U.S. Navy for $1 in 1999 as surplus property and redeveloped the property as Goliad County Industrial Airpark , which was a county-owned, public-use

. The airport was included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

'' facility. The United States Navy repurchased the field from Goliad County in 2011 for $2.3 million (equivalent to $ million in ).

Facilities

NOLF Goliad covers an area of 1,136

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (460 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 324 feet (99 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has two

s: 11/29 is 8,000 by 150 feet (2,438 x 46 m) with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

and

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface; 17/35 is 8,000 by 150 feet (2,438 x 46 m) with an asphalt surface.

References

External links

* {{US-airport-ga, NGT Airports in Texas Transportation in Goliad County, Texas