VOUGHT AND THE US NAVY

Dallasites, did you think our Naval Air Station on Mountain Creek Lake played a large role in US military events in the twentieth century? I suspected it didn't. Having read about its missions of pilot training, airplane repair, housing the Texas Air National Guard, I thought..."Ho hum..." and wondered how Mountain Creek Lake became so polluted. But tonight I really read about the history of Chance Vought Corp/Aircraft Industry located on MCL and its long relationship with the US Navy. Vought was recruited by the Navy to move to Dallas from Connecticut in 1949. Its mission was to build and create more powerful planes than those used in WW II-planes that could carry a heavier load and bomb targets more accurately than previous designs. Research with ceramic nuclear reactors ("Pluto") was carried out at a Vought facility(ies); and the most sophisticated planes used in Viet Nam, Bosnia, and Iraq were made by that company. One example: the FSU-1 Crusader bomber with the highest "kill rate" in the Viet Nam War. The Vought-Dallas plant on Mt Creek Lake was identified by the company as the location of "final assembly," and pilots from Carswell AF base in Ft Worth tested the planes. At one point, the Air Force had its own squad, famous for special ops, stationed at the adjoining Dallas NAS, as well. So, from my present viewpoint, the Dallas Naval Air Station was very important to the Navy and Air Force- much more so than I realized as a kid growing up in Oak Cliff. Yes, we knew about the planes, but not the bombs-not top secret projects that came to Dallas from the military bases on the East Coast. We never realized that being "inland" was appealing to the Navy with less risk from the enemy than being on the coast, much open cheap land, fewer regulations, a giant Texas workforce; and a Naval Air Sation already built with its runway-ready for major aircraft action! Dallas was filled with young, educated World War II veterans eager to see the Communists defeated with awesome post-war technology - from the late fifties until JFK was assasinated and the war in Viet Nam took off-and, frankly, spun out of control. Some have said that Dallas as a whole was sympathetic to the military-industrial complex that supported LBJ and considered Kennedy a Communist appeaser. I believe that in the late 50s and early 60s, conflict was definitely brewing and 55,000 tools at a plant alongside Mt Creek Lake were flying - building an airborne nightmare for Cuba, Russia, and Viet Nam.
Two simple but heartfelt concluding thoughts: Thank God our country survived these wars (though many soldiers didn't), and Americans and some of the world enjoy freedom. And may God help us deal with the environmental enemy we created in the war process. Victory costs the earth and comes with a heck of a lot of responsibility.