Naval Air Station Atlanta

Naval Air Station Atlanta is a Georgia historical marker in DeKalb County, dedicated 1991.

At the intersection of Airport Drive and Clairmont Road (Georgia Route 155), on the right on Airport Drive in Chamblee.

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Anticipating America´s involvement in a second world war, the government returned to the site of Camp Gordon in October 1940 and over the next seven months constructed a 400-acre Naval Reserve Aviation Base at the DeKalb County Airport. Commissioned in March 1941, the field´s chief mission was primary flight training of Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Expanding to meet war needs, the base added training for instrument flight instructors and in January 1943 was designated Naval Air Station Atlanta. Training some 3,000 pilots and over 4,000 instructors, NAS Atlanta supported the vast expansion of naval aviation that proved decisive in the Pacific War against Japan. Following World War II, NAS Atlanta became a Reserve Naval Air Station with nine squadrons (F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, TMB Avengers, and PBY Catalinas) and trained reservists to meet the Korean War emergency of 1950-1953. The evolution of jet fighters and large patrol bombers prompted the relocation of NAS Atlanta to the longer runways of Dobbins Air Force Base, Marietta in 1959. Donated by Veterans of NAS Atlanta.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1874 · Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1890 · Atlanta, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1892 · Atlanta, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1895 · Atlanta, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1895 · Gen. map VIII. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Atlanta, Georgia, 1895, covering the location of Naval Air Station Atlanta, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Atlanta, Georgia, 1895, covering this location. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

Naval Air Station Atlanta

Historical maps covering this location

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