North Island Naval Complex

North Island Naval Complex is among the largest and most significant military facilities the United States Navy controls and owns. The place was established in San Diego Bay, on the northern part of Coronado peninsula. It is one of the multitude of military bases operated by the US Navy in California. The base is commanded by Captain Yancy B. Lindsey and hosts a few powerful aircraft carriers. Along with a few other bases, this complex forms the largest and most important aerospace industrial formation in the United States Navy.

History
The history of North Island Naval Complex started in 1917, as World War I was slowly drawing to an end and the world was trying to recover. The place was initially established as NAS San Diego. It remained with this name and the naval air station status for almost four decades, until 1955. In 1963, the success of this base and the advanced technologies used on site brought in the reputation of a birthplace of the naval aviation in the country. The site didn’t bring in any spectacular achievements between the two major wars of the 20-th century, while it was just a few years away from catching World War I. However, things changed with the outbreak of World War II. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the United States of America were directly forced to enter the war.

North Island Naval Complex was the main and most prolific inland base supporting the operations in the Pacific Theater. The base sent over a lot of aircraft carriers. They were highly connected with a lot of other troops that were deployed at the same time, whether you count the Marines or the Army. These were some of the first missions for the new Seabess. The Seabees were responsible for building homes, facilities and walking paths, among many others.

The base never stopped working during World War II. The workers were on duty around the clock. The base was huge, therefore keeping it alive required a lot of troops. Meanwhile, the other troops on the warring fields indirectly depended on this base .

These days, the base is not that active anymore. As a matter of fact, it can be taken for a standby mode, but in an unofficial way. The amazing sightseeing and the relaxing atmosphere attracted a lot of celebrities as time passed by. You can count Wild Bill Hickok, Guy Madison or Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Units

When you count the units at North Island Naval Complex, you need to count both the people and the ships. For someone in the US Navy, a ship is often taken for a human. There are close to twenty squadrons on site, such as the HSC 85 Firehawks, the HSL 49 Scorpions, the VF 57 Conquistadors or the HSC 6 Indians. As for the ships, there are just two of them around – USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson.

The list with temporary units can go on as there are plenty of them, but they are not as useful as the real leaders.