Naval Air Station North Island

 military airbase, historic landmark, United States Navy, naval air station

North Island Aviation Camp was established in 1911 by the Army Signal Corps after Glenn Curtiss made the first seaplane flight on the uninhabited North Island January 26, 1911, and founded an aviation school. One of the students, Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, USN, later became Naval Aviator Number 1.

Established in 1913 as North Island Field. Later renamed in honor of 2d Lt. Lewis G. Rockwell, killed 28 September 1912 in an airplane crash.

In 1915, the camp became a permanent Army Signal Corps aviation school, and Curtiss moved to Buffalo, New York, to manufacture airplanes. Due to World War I, Congress officially purchased North Island in August of 1917 and its airfield.

Rockwell Field was transferred to the US Navy on 25 October 1935.

Naval Air Station North Island (NAS North Island or NASNI), located at the north end of the Silver Strand in San Diego Bay, is the home port of several aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. It is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the United States Navy, the 57,000-acre (230 km²) Naval Base Coronado in San Diego County, California.

The commanding officer of NAS North Island is also the Commanding Officer, Naval Base Coronado. As such, he commands or administers Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Outlying Field Imperial Beach, Navy Radio Receiving Facility, Mountain Training Facility LaPosta, Warner Springs Training Area and Naval Air Landing Facility San Clemente Island. NASNI, with only its commands in the metropolitan San Diego Area, brackets the city of Coronado from the entrance to San Diego Bay to the Mexican border. North Island itself is host to 23 squadrons and 80 additional tenant commands and activities, one of which, the Naval Aviation Depot, is the largest aerospace employer in San Diego.

Formerly home to the Headquarters, 7th Bombardment Group from 1928 to 1931, the Headquarters, 19th Bombardment Group from 1932 to 1935, the 2nd Aero Squadron from 1919 1920, the 4th Observation Squadron from 1922 to 1927, the 4th Transportation Squadron from 1935 to 1938, the 9th Bombardment Squadron from 1928 to 1931, the 11th Bombardment Squadron from 1928 to 1931, the 18th Observation Squadron from 1921 to 1922, the 30th Bombardment Squadron from 1932 to 1935, the 32nd Bombardment Squadron from 1932 to 1935, the 76th Service Squadron from 1930 to 1932, the 91st Aero Squadron in 1920, the 95th Pursuit Squadron from 1928 to 1931, and the 95th Bombardment Squadron from 1940 to 1941.

www.nbc.navy.mil/
history.sandiego.edu/gen/local/kearny/page00d.html