History / Military
Chase Field: Bee County's Former Naval Air Station
Naval Air Station Chase Field operated near Beeville from 1943 to 1993, training Navy and Marine jet pilots before closing after the Cold War.
During World War II, the Navy took over a municipal airport that was being built near Beeville and turned it into a training base. The base was named for Lt. Commander Nathan Brown Chase, a naval aviator who died in a 1925 training accident. The base closed after the war, then reopened for the Korean War, and became Naval Air Station Chase Field in 1968.
At its peak, the station had about 2,500 military and civilian workers. It was home to Training Air Wing Three, which trained pilots on jet aircraft. The base shut down in 1993 as part of military cutbacks after the Cold War ended.
Losing the base hurt the economy of Beeville and the surrounding area. The TSHA Handbook entry on the station covers its full history.
Source to confirm: TSHA Handbook – Naval Air Station Beeville