U. S. Naval Air Station (Blimp Base)

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker down near Hitchcock has to say, and friend, this one floats. Literally. Picture the Gulf Coast in 1942, flat as a skillet and twice as hot, and somewhere up in Washington somebody looks at a map and says: we need blimps.

Not a few blimps. Huge lighter-than-air craft, the Navy called them, though most folks just said blimps and left it at that. The problem was German submarines working the shipping lanes, and the solution, strange as it sounds, was something that could hang in the sky above a target and just, watch.

Hover. Wait. The blimps were uniquely qualified for that kind of coastal defense and observation, and the Navy knew it.

So they set about building nine new blimp bases along the coasts of the United States. Nine. And one of them was going to Texas.

The site they picked was Hitchcock, chosen because of its location on the flat Texas coastal plain. Can't argue with the logic. Construction began in 1942, and the facility was commissioned on May 22, 1943.

Now when you drop a military installation into a small community, things change fast. The personnel build-up brought an economic boom to the area, and suddenly Hitchcock was a different kind of place. The base itself was no modest operation.

Forty-seven buildings in all: administration buildings, warehouses, living quarters, recreational facilities. And then there was the hangar. A massive hangar built to house six blimps at once.

Six. Just sit with that for a second. The aircraft flew regular patrols over the coast, but they also pitched in for hurricane relief efforts and war bond drives.

These were working ships of the air, doing more than one kind of duty. Then came 1944, and the calculus changed. The blimps were no longer needed, and the Hitchcock base was redesignated for other purposes.

After the war, some of the buildings found new life with private interests. But that great hangar, that enormous structure built to shelter six of the biggest flying things most people had ever seen, it met a quieter end. Hurricane damage in 1961, and then it was razed.

Gone. The flat Texas coastal plain doesn't give you much to hide behind, and sometimes it doesn't let you keep what you've built either. But for a few years in the middle of the worst war the world had ever seen, Hitchcock looked up and the sky was full.

What the marker says

(Seven-tenths mile south) In an effort to defend U. S. coasts and shipping lanes against German submarine activity during World War II, the U. S. Navy established bases to house huge lighter-than-air (LTA) craft, also known as blimps. With the ability to hover above a target, the blimps were uniquely qualified for coastal defense and observation. Because of its site on the flat Texas coastal plain, Hitchcock was chosen as the location for one of the nine new blimp bases. Construction began in 1942, and the facility was commissioned on May 22, 1943. The resulting military personnel build-up caused an economic boom in the community. The Hitchcock base consisted of forty-seven buildings, including a massive hangar to house six blimps, administration buildings, warehouses, living quarters, and recreational facilities. Aircraft from the base, in addition to their regular patrolling duties, were also used to assist with hurricane relief efforts and war bond drives. In 1944, after the blimps were no longer needed, the Hitchcock base was redesignated for other purposes. Following the war some of the buildings were used by private interests, and after hurricane damage in 1961 the blimp hangar was razed. (1989)