Pasco Naval Air Station was a United States Navy air station located east of Pasco, in Franklin County, Washington, USA. After the war, it was redeveloped into Tri-Cities Airport. One of its auxiliary airfields became Vista Field in Kennewick, but was closed in 2013.

History

After the Attack on Pearl harbor, on December 18 Naval reserve officers began the search for areas suitable for air bases using old land surveys made prior to WW2.

East of Pasco, land found suitable would see a group of Sea bees (CBs) who called themselves the Dirty thirty begin construction in March 1942, in four months the base was completed and on August 3rd, the base was officially ready for operations.

The base known at the time as "Navy reserve base" had its mission set to give new pilots primary training.

During 1943, the mission shifted to give advanced training.

Pasco was now flying 3 types of aircraft year round, the F6F "Hellcat", the TBF "Avenger" and the Stearman biplane.

Pasco naval air station was one of the three busiest Naval aviation training facilities of the war.

After the war, the Navy sold the field to the city of Pasco for one dollar under the condition that it retains training privileges. Several Navy aircraft, especially the P-3 Orion, use the field for touch and go's.^[1]

On June 9, 2011, the Port of Pasco Commissioners agreed to preserve the old Navy-built control tower located on the East side of the Tri-Cities Airport, Pasco. A non-profit group has been formed to help the preservation and upkeep of the tower known as Pasco aviation museum.^[2]

References