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Coordinates: 34°54′03″N 076°52′51″W / 34.90083°N 76.88083°W / 34.90083; -76.88083

MCAS Cherry Point
Cunningham Field
MCAS CPoint
MCAS Cherry Point insignia
EA-6A Intruder over Cherry Point
IATA: none – ICAO: KNKT – FAA LID: NKT
Summary
Airport type Military
Operator United States Marine Corps
Location Havelock, North Carolina
Built 1942
In use May 20, 1942 - present
Commander Col Philip J. Zimmerman [1]
Occupants 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Elevation AMSL 29 ft / 9 m
Website cherrypoint.usmc.mil
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
5L/23R 7,553 2,302 Asphalt
5R/23L 8,188 2,496 Asphalt
14L/32R 8,984 2,738 Asphalt
14R/32L 8,399 2,560 Asphalt
Sources: Official website[2] and FAA[3]

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point or MCAS Cherry Point(*34°54′03″N 76°52′51″W / 34.9009°N 76.8807°W / 34.9009; -76.8807) (ICAO: KNKT, FAA Location identifier: NKT) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located in Havelock, North Carolina, USA, in the eastern part of the state. It was built in 1941, and was commissioned in 1942 and is currently home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

Resident units[]

MCAS Cherry Point also maintains a satellite field at MCALF Bogue, in Bogue, North Carolina, as well as an outlying airfield at Marine Corps Outlying Field (MCOLF) Atlantic in Atlantic, NC. Several former outlying landing fields have been converted to regional airports, such as MCOF Greenville, MCAA Kinston, and MCOF New Bern.

History[]

Congress authorized Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on July 9, 1941, with an initial appropriation of $14,990,000 for construction and clearing of an 8,000 acre (32 km²) tract of swamps, farms and timberland.

Actual clearing of the site began on August 6, 1941, with extensive drainage and malaria control work. Construction began in November just 17 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On May 20, 1942, the facility was commissioned Cunningham Field, named in honor of the Marine Corps' first aviator, Lieutenant Colonel Alfred A. Cunningham. The completed facility was later renamed Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, after a local post office situated among cherry trees.

Cherry Point's primary World War II mission was to train units and individual Marines for service to the Pacific theater. The air station also served as a base for anti-submarine operations, with an Army Air Corps (22d Antisubmarine Squadron) and later a Navy squadron each being responsible for the sinking of a German U-boat just off the North Carolina coast during 1943.

Cherry Point's contribution to the Korean War effort was to provide a steady stream of trained aviators and air crewmen as well as maintenance and support personnel as replacements to forward deployed aviation units.

During the Vietnam War, Cherry Point deployed three A-6 Intruder squadrons to the Far East and again provided a constant source of replacements for aircrews and enlisted aviation personnel.

In Operation Desert Storm, Cherry Point was a major contributor to the victory in Southwest Asia by supporting the deployment of three AV-8B Harrier squadrons, two A-6E Intruder squadrons, one KC-130 Hercules squadron, one EA-6B Prowler squadron, and headquarters detachments from Marine Aircraft Group 14, Marine Aircraft Group 32, and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

Cherry Point Marines and Sailors participated in strike missions and follow-on operations in Afghanistan and its surrounding region during Operation Enduring Freedom, which was initiated on October 7, 2001.

On September 8, 2007, the headquarters building (198) was gutted by a fire.[4] The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Headquarters Building was on 29 July 2009, with completion planned for sometime in 2011.

The air station and its associated support locations occupy more than 29,000 acres (120 km²). Its runway system is large enough that the air station served as an alternate emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle launches out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.[5][6]

USAF use[]

On 1 July 1957 the United States Air Force 614th Airborne Control and Warning Squadron established an Air Defense Command Phase I Mobile Radar station (M-116) at Cherry Point. This station was part of the planned deployment of forty-four Mobile radar stations. The Air Force activated an AN/FPS-6 and two AN/FPS-8 radars located adjacent to Base Flight Operations. These radars were placed on top of 90-foot (27 m) towers without radomes, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. In addition to the radars on the air station, two unmanned AN/FPS-14 "Gap Filler" sites, one at Engelhard, NC (M-116B) 35°29′49″N 076°00′34″W / 35.49694°N 76.00944°W / 35.49694; -76.00944 (M-116B) and one at Holly Ridge, NC (M-116C) 34°30′50″N 077°32′08″W / 34.51389°N 77.53556°W / 34.51389; -77.53556 (M-116C/M-115C) were set up for additional coverage. One of the AN/FPS-8s was damaged by Hurricane Donna in 1960. The radars were turned over to the Navy on 30 April 1960, and the Marine Corps retained the other undamaged AN/FPS-8 radar for a number of years for base air traffic control.

During 1961 M-116 joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, initially feeding data to DC-04 at Fort Lee AFS, Virginia. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the 614th Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 March 1963. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile.

Air Force radar operations continued at MCAS Cherry Point until 1 August 1963 when budget reductions and a general draw-down of antiaircraft radar sites closed the facility.[7][8]

See also[]

References[]

Notes
PD-icon This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps.
  1. "MCASCPCO". United States Marine Corps. http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascherrypoint/Pages/command/MCASCPCO.aspx. 
  2. MSAC Cherry Point, official site, retrieved 2007-11-12
  3. , effective 2007-10-25
  4. "Headquarters building badly damaged in fire at Cherry Point Marine base". New Bern Sun Journal. September 9, 2007. http://www.newbernsj.com/onset?id=36406&template=article.html. Retrieved 2007-09-10. 
  5. AirStaO 3121.1A MARINE CORPS AIR STATION (MCAS) CHERRY POINT SPACE SHUTTLE SUPPORT PLAN (SSSP)
  6. Beard, Steven D.; Leslie A. Ringo, Brian Mader, Estela H. Buchmann, and Thomas Tanita. "Space Shuttle Landing and Rollout Training at the Vertical Motion Simulator". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. http://www.aviationsystemsdivision.arc.nasa.gov/publications/2008/AF2008096.pdf. Retrieved 2 January 2011. 
  7. Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
  8. Radomes information for Cherry Point
Bibliography
  • Shettle Jr., M. L. (2001). United States Marine Corps Air Stations of World War II. Bowersville, Georgia: Schaertel Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-9643388-2-3. 
Web

External links[]



All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and the edit history here.
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