Charlietown - Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge - Charlestown, RI - Rhode Island Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

In Charlestown, within the Ninigret U.S. National Wildlife Refuge, is this historical sign at the end of an end of a former landing strip.

To get to the sign, from U.S. Route 1, go east onto Route 1A, then turn south at the sign to Ninigret Park. Follow the access road, take a left at a split, and follow the access road past an observatory and a dog park to the end. Then, walk east from the parking lot to the sign about 50 ft from the parking lot.

The sign has the following on it:

"Charlietown

Look beneath your feet. You are standing on what was once Runway 30 of the Charlestown Naval Auxilliary Landing Field, or "Charlietown:" as the young pilots called it.

Night Fighter Pilots
In 1942, in support of the air and sea missions of World War II, the Navy purchased the Hunter Harbor summer colony and nearly 600 acres of farmland along Ninigret Pond to create a landing and training field for night fighter pilots. These young pilots, ranging in age from 19 - 23, were trained to fly without lights and with minimal radio contact, relying entirely on their in-plane instruments. The dangers of using only a primitive form of radar, combined with the hazardous weather conditions of the northeast, resulted in many flight accidents in and around Charlestown.

Flying a Hellcat
Runway 30, one of three runways at the landing field, was named after the first two digits of the compass reading used by the pilots. Each runway was a minimum of 200 feet wide and 4,800 feet long, with the longest runway measuring 5,800 feet. The primary aircraft used during the war was the Hellcat. The base could hold as many as 300 of these planes at one time. There were two taxiways and over 150 buildings, including airplane hangers, dining rooms, bunkers, enlisted and officer quarters, an administration building, a radio transmitter building, a wastewater treatment plant, and a fire station. Because training at the base began almost two years before the barracks were constructed, as many as 1,500 men lived in tents at nearby Burlingame State Park.

Bounce Drills
Pilots trained for four months in Charlestown before heading out for duty in the South Pacific. Training consisted of 500 hours flight time and included tactics, gunnery, carrier landing, navigation, and instrument flying during day and night. For catapult training, a wooden carrier deck with a catapult was constructed adjacent to Runway 22. Neighboring children would com watch from a distance as the novic pilots landed on the simulated carrier decks. These training landings became known as "bounce drills" as the planes bounced their way onto the carriers.

Training a Former President
Former President George H.W. Bush was stationed at Charlestown to learn to navigate the TBM-1 Avenger, a big prop-driven plane with a 50 foot wingspan. He named her "Barbara" after a young debutante he was dating. Barbara, of course, later became his wife and the First Lady.

Practice Carrier Landing
Beginning in 1951, the base was used as a practice carrier landing field for Antisubmarine and Airborne Early Warning aircraft based at Quonset Air Field. The pilots trained in newer aircraft such as the Corsair, Bearcat, and Skyraider. There were never more than 150 personnel on the airfield, and no aircraft were based here during that period. The base closed in the early 1970s and was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, becoming a refuge for wildlife."

A very short segment of the landing strip remains. It is not maintained, so the pavement appears cracked and vegetation is growing in it. The parking lot sits where the strip continued. Currently, if you look west, you can still make out where the strip was - where the vegetation is low compared to more mature trees on either side. This will be harder to distinguish as times go by.

Organization that Placed the Marker: US Department of the Interior Related Website: [Web Link] Year Marker was Placed: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   10/14/2016 wildernessmama visited it