Corry Field

Corry Field, with its new hangars and operations/tower building that were to serve as a model for similar airfield support structures at Pensacola and nearby facilities, was officially dedicated by RADM Ernest King on 8 Dec ’34. Consolidated NY-1s, part of Corry’s primary landplane training squadron, line the tarmac prior to the mass formation flight that accompanied the dedication ceremonies.

With the announcement in November 1921 that landplane training would soon take place at Pensacola, Navy planners began to enlarge Station Field and sought an additional practice field to accommodate increased training activity. Pensacola city officials offered a 250-acre site for the new field where Booker T. Washington High School is now located.

The new auxiliary field was named for native Floridian LCDR William M. Corry Jr., Naval Aviator No. 23, and training began on 1 July 1922. The field was sandy and facilities were primitive. For a time, in fact, groundskeepers were on station to keep cows from wandering into the landing area during flight operations, and a bootlegger had set up a still nearby to supply the aviators with liquid refreshment. Eventually temporary facilities, including a small barracks, mess hall and garage, were built.

Students, after completing their primary seaplane training, began their primary landplane instruction at Corry in the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny,” replaced in late 1927 by the Consolidated NY-1. Considered too small after only five years of operations, the first Corry Field was relegated to the status of an outlying strip that became known as City Field. Land for a new 500-acre training facility was procured and a second Corry Field was built three miles north of Mainside Pensacola. The new field, though unpaved, boasted a galley, three large barracks and a temporary hangar. A fence at the new field kept the cows from wandering about during flight operations.

Students await information on the steps of Corry Field’s administrative and tower facilities circa 1933. Flags atop the tower are signals for air operations, as trainers were not equipped with radios before World War II.

With the inauguration of training at the new Corry Field on 9 July 1927, the facility became the home of Training Squadron Two (primary landplanes) and Training Squadron Five (fighting planes) for the next 14 years. From 1933 to 1936, facilities were significantly upgraded with the construction of permanent brick station buildings and hangars, whose design became a model for hangars at all future Pensacola auxiliary fields. As the buildings were constructed, the field was improved as well — it was paved and taxiways were incorporated into the growing airfield layout as the tail skid trainers were replaced by those with brakes and tail wheels.

In the pre-World War II era, Corry consisted of two separate fields, East and West. Students and instructors alike found the traffic pattern to be a nightmare, a bewildering mixture of primary and fighting planes landing and taking off at the same time. It was also home to primary elimination glider training in the mid-1930s.

Primary squadrons flew the reliable NY-1 until replaced by the NAF N3N, the Stearman NS and later the N2S beginning in 1935. VN-5 trained in the Vought VE-7 in the 1920s and the Boeing F3B and F4B series fighters as well as the Vought O3U and SU and the North American NJ in the 1930s.

In the late 1930s one of the best trainers for gunnery, bombing, simulated carrier landings and formation was the sprightly Boeing F4B-3, this one assigned to Squadron Five.

Corry, and to a lesser extent Chevalier Field’s training squadrons, used numerous outlying fields that dotted the countryside bearing names like German, City, Stump, Veterans, Bayou, Y, Z, Fountain, Felton Farms and the infamous Clay Pits.

With the War Comes Changes

As the winds of war stirred in 1940, the entire training syllabus was modified to meet expanded training needs. Corry’s VN-5s fighting aircraft were moved to nearby Saufley Field in August 1940 and later to NAS Miami, to be replaced at Corry by an additional primary training squadron, VN-1B. Primary training in hundreds of yellow N3Ns and N2Ns was conducted at Corry by VN-1A and -1B until late 1942. The “Yellow Perils” were also used by the Primary Instructor School, based at Corry until early 1943. The field was designated a Naval Auxiliary Air Station on 15 January 1943.

Bright yellow NAF N3N-3s await the day’s training activities, 1941. The characteristic hangar construction for Pensacola-area air facilities originated at Corry Field.

In 1942 the NAS Pensacola Transport Unit, flying PBYs, R4Ds and SNBs, found a home at Corry. The unit was soon redesignated Squadron Eight C in January 1943 and conducted multi-engine patrol or VB-2 training in SNBs until moving in November 1943 to Whiting Field. Joining Squadron Eight C in August 1943 was Squadron Six, conducting carrier aircraft VTB (torpedo/bombing) training initially in land-based OS2Us (and later SNJs) until the end of 1944. VB-2 training returned to Corry at the end of 1944 and remained there until mid-1947, operating at times more than 160 SNBs. A utility squadron flying PBYs was also based at Corry for towing targets, patrolling and air-sea rescue.

Realignment After the War

In mid-1947, with the phase out of the Stearman N2S in the Training Command, all basic training in SNJs was concentrated in Pensacola when advanced training moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. From mid-1947 until urban sprawl and training syllabus changes caught up with the old field in mid-1958, Corry conducted first primary and then various types of basic training that included instruments, night flying and VS/VP basic in SNJs and later T-28s and SNBs. The field was also home from mid-1949 until mid-1952 to the Basic and Advanced Training Command’s carrier qualification training unit.

Overhead view of NAAS Corry in July 1956 depicts the runways and old mat areas once referred to as “Suicide Circle” by aviation cadets in the late 1930s due to the field’s heavy traffic. The hangars, tower and administrative buildings lining the taxiway remain standing, though air activities at the field would soon be moved elsewhere.

Corry was closed in June 1958 and remained inactive until 1960, when the hangars and station buildings were converted to classrooms for the newly arrived Communications Technician school. In 1973, the field’s name was changed to Naval Technical Training Center, Corry Station. Since the change, Corry has grown into a highly technical, joint services training center specializing in cryptology, electronic warfare, advanced calibration, information technology and instructor training.

In a 1998 overhead view, the outline of the old runway layout remains as do four hangars and other support buildings built in 1934 along the northern (upper) part of the field. The Navy Exchange/ commissary complex is in the center of the field, military housing occupies the southeastern corner while the Pensacola Naval Hospital is sited in the southwest corner. The Communications Technician A School is currently Corry’s principal tenant.