Naval Air Station Dallas

NAS Dallas - 17 February 1995

Naval Air Station Dallas (also Hensley Field) was a United States Navy Naval Air Station located on Mountain Creek Lake in southwest Dallas. The installation was originally established as an Army Aviation center, and eventually became home to aviation assets from all the military services. The facility was decommissioned in December 1998.^[1] The base was later recommissioned as it is today, with the half that housed the aircraft-related facilities (such as the runway, hangars, etc.) going to the Texas Air National Guard, and the half with the bulk of non-aircraft related facilities going to the Army Reserves and small area to Marine Forces Reserve. Vought Aircraft Industries operates a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) plant adjacent to NAS Dallas.

History

Aerial view of NAS Dallas in the mid-1940s

An A-4 Skyhawk from VMA-322

The City of Dallas established Hensley Field in August 1929 as a training field for reserve pilots. The facility was named for Major William N. Hensley, a flying instructor located near Dallas in the 1920s and one of the few on board the first trans-Atlantic dirigible crossing in 1919.^[2]

The city leased the site to the United States Army for a dollar a year. The field became the Air Corps Reserve Base in the Eighth Corps Area. At the beginning of World War II, the Army extended their lease to 40 years. In March 1941, the Navy began maintaining operations at the base and shortly afterward established a naval reserve training base on 160 acres (0.7 km²) adjacent to Hensley Field.^[2]

In December 1941 Hensley Field became headquarters of the Midwest Area of the Air Corps Ferrying Command, after Maj. Thomas D. Ferguson, commander of the field, was made control officer for the Middle West Area of the United States.^[2]

The installation was closed in 1998 as part of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure conducted by the Department of Defense, but partially reopened in the early 21st-century to accommodate military training requirements.

Tenant units

• Texas Army National Guard
  • HHC 2-149 AV
• Texas Air National Guard
  • 254th Combat Communications Group
  • 221st Combat Communications Squadron
• Marine Forces Reserve
  • 2nd Battalion 14th Marines
  • Marine Aircraft Group 41
    • Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 41
    • Marine Wing Support Squadron 471
    • Marine Fighting Squadron 111
    • Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112
    • Marine Fighting Squadron 413
    • Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 762
    • Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 772, Detachment 'B'
    • Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 777
• United States Army Reserves

See also

	Dallas-Fort Worth portal
	Aviation portal
	United States Navy portal

• Texas World War II Army Airfields

References

1. ^ GlobalSecurity.org - NAS Dallas/Hensley Field. Retrieved 17 November 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Naval Air Station, Dallas from the Handbook of Texas Online

Coordinates: 32°44′N 96°58′W / 32.74°N 96.97°W / 32.74; -96.97