This aviation facility developed out of a need during World War II for additional air training sites for U.S. Navy pilots. In 1942 the Aransas County Commissioners Court offered the Civil Aeronautics Administration the use of land in the county for an auxiliary military landing field. Voters approved a bond issue and accompanying tax to build the airport, and the county subsequently purchased 700 acres of land for that purpose. For the duration of the war, the site was leased to the Navy, which practiced landing operations out of its regional air stations at Beeville, Kingsville and Corpus Christi. The airport since that time has served both military and public purposes. (2001)