From Airships to Airport: Brunswick’s High-Flying History
By Leslie Faulkenberry, Faulkenberry Certain Advertising
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration
After the Bombing - Pearl Harbor
Nobody wanted a war. But after the bombs fell at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there was no turning back. Within days, German U-boats began to attack our Merchant Marine vessels. In the first six months of World War II, 400 vessels carrying supplies and troops to battlefields around the globe were destroyed, along with everyone on board. The U.S. Navy devised a plan to use airships, also called blimps, to escort ship convoys. Flying low and slow, blimps could detect approaching submarines and drop armaments or guide traditional aircraft to intercept and attack. Brunswick was selected as the location for Naval Air Station Glynco, home base for Airship Squadron 15. It was a decision that reshaped the city and county’s future.
Courtesy of Paul Pribble, Glynn County Airport Commission archives
Blimp Convoy Escort
Since wartime steel was in short supply, the base’s two enormous blimp hangars were constructed of Douglas fir timbers, cut and milled in Tacoma, Washington. Each hangar, measuring 1,058 feet long, 297 feet wide and 182 feet tall, was fully assembled at the mill. Then all pieces were numbered, carefully dismantled, sent to fireproofing plants all over the country and shipped to the site at Glynco one carload at a time to be reassembled. Incredibly, despite the complexity and sheer size of the project, not one load of parts went astray, or arrived out of order. It was fortunate, and indicative of the character of Coastal Georgians, that no one stopped working long enough to realize that this was an impossible task. By February 1943, Airship Squadron 15 was operational.
Courtesy of Captain John Lindgren, USNR, Glynn County Airport Commission archives
Hangar Construction in Progress
Imagine piloting an aircraft that could change its weight in an instant. The silvery, textured rubber skin of the envelope, or inflated portion of the blimp, could immediately take on 500 additional pounds of rainwater. A gust of wind could transform it into a feisty 250-plus-foot long bucking bronco. A handling crew of 15-30 people would be required to manage a launch or landing. Yet, Navy airships proved invaluable in anti-submarine warfare, as well as in testing new air-sea rescue technique, communications, sonar and radar equipment. Of the 89,000 ships escorted by blimps, there was not a single loss to a U-boat.
Longer-range flight capabilities pushed pilots and crews to the edge, requiring them to master the difficult maneuver of landing a blimp on the heaving deck of an aircraft carrier in open seas to refuel. Completing such a mission was a great confidence builder. “If you could convince a giant windblown bag of helium to stay put on the deck of a ship long enough to load on some hot chow and get gassed up, you could probably handle just about anything,” a former airship pilot observed.
Courtesy of David Gill, Glynn County Airport Commission archives
Blimp on a Carrier
By 1953, all airship training in the Navy was moved to Glynco, followed by the Combat Information Center (CIC) Training School and Naval Air Technical Training Center. An 8,000-foot long runway and operations center were built, and air traffic control training for all US military branches moved to Brunswick. Business was brisk, building was booming and confidence in the future was high. Glynco was “the best-kept secret in the Navy,” according to many veterans of service here. The friendly community, beautiful beaches and informal personality of the base made it a good place to live, learn and innovate. “We had a lot of really smart guys stationed here,” a Glynco veteran recalled. “People worked together well.”
Courtesy of Lt. Commander Roy Norman, USNR, Glynn County Airport Commission archives
Students in trailer GA classroom.
By 1971, the Navy reluctantly demolished Glynco’s rapidly deteriorating, landmark blimp hangars. The rapid pace of building continued elsewhere on the base, so the next loss was completely unexpected. In 1973, the Navy announced that NAS Glynco would be closed at the end of the following year.
It was time for everyone to pull together, even in the grips of a major economic recession, and find another use for the base property. Local leaders worked feverishly to present the community in its best light to potential new occupants. Their efforts paid off with spectacular benefits. In 1975, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) selected part of the former Glynco property as its permanent home. The Navy also transferred ownership of the airfield to Glynn County to serve as its new municipal airport, along with valuable nearby land.
Glynn County Airport Commission archives
Chairman Percy Harrell, Commander George Eckerd Signing License Between Glynn Co. & US Navy, April 30, 1975
The community could now boast of an airport with an 8,000-foot runway. Any aircraft in operation could–and still can–land in Brunswick. The surrounding acreage beckoned industrial and retail development. Scheduled carrier air service came to stay. At the start of the new century and millennium, the airport needed a new passenger terminal.
It was time to go big or go home. The Glynn County Airport Commission chose the former. An impressive new terminal facility, designed in the Spanish-influenced style of local resorts, was built at the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport. The terminal’s soaring, vaulted interior is reminiscent of Glynco’s long-ago blimp hangars. It was dedicated amid great fanfare and celebration ten years ago, on August 18, 2005--40 years after the FLETC came to town and 73 years after the government began to build the base. The event ushered in the first year of a new era of prosperity for the Golden Isles.