Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City

Coordinates: 36°15′27″N 76°11′00″W / 36.2575°N 76.1833333°W / 36.2575; -76.1833333

Unit Patch CGAS Elizabeth City

Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City is a United States Coast Guard air station located at Elizabeth City Regional Airport in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, along the Pasquotank River near the opening of the Albemarle Sound. It is one of the busiest air stations in the Coast Guard, operating missions as far away as Greenland, the Azores and the Caribbean.^[1]

Operations and Missions

Coast Guard Air Station (CGAS) Elizabeth City is located on the campus of Support Center Elizabeth City. It is one of several command units located on the Coast Guard's premier Support Center Elizabeth City base. In addition, the Support Center complex houses the Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC) (a headquarters level command which trains enlisted Coast Guardsmen in aviation ratings in "A" Schools and advanced "C" Schools), the Aviation Logistics Center (ALC) and Station Elizabeth City.^[2]

The missions of CGAS Elizabeth City include search and rescue (SAR), Maritime Law enforcement, International Ice Patrol, aids to navigation support (such as operating lighthouses), and marine environmental protection (such as responding to oil spills).^[1]

Currently, CGAS Elizabeth City maintains and operates five HC-130J Hercules aircraft and four MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters.

History

Floatplanes at CGAS Elizabeth City in March 1942.

Elizabeth City Aviation Technical Training Center

CGAS Elizabeth City was commissioned on August 15, 1940, with four officers, 52 enlisted men and ten aircraft including three Hall PH-2 seaplanes, four Fairchild J2K landplanes, and three Grumman J2F Duck amphibious aircraft. Located sixty miles north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, north of Albemarle Sound and along the East Coast's northern most ice-free river, the old Holowell Plantation near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was selected by the United States Coast Guard in 1938 for its potential strategic value as a seaplane base.

During World War II, the air station was under United States Navy control conducting Search and Rescue (SAR), Anti-submarine warfare, and training missions. Since then the air station's missions and assigned aircraft have shifted and grown with changing national priorities and technologies. In 1966 Air Station Elizabeth City expanded after absorbing the coast guard air stations at Kindley AFB, Bermuda and NAS Argentia, Newfoundland.^[2]

Recently Support Center Elizabeth City, home of Air Station Elizabeth City was the setting (and used as a double for Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, Alaska) in the Kevin Costner film, The Guardian. Support Center personnel were instrumental in providing the infrastructure and support necessary to the filming of the motion picture.

Geographic location

Support Center Elizabeth City is located at 36°15′38″N 76°10′29″W / 36.26056°N 76.17472°W / 36.26056; -76.17472.^[3]

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} CGAS Elizabeth City Operations and Missions, http://www.uscg.mil/d5/airstation/ecity/missions.html
2. ^ ^{a b} "Air Station Elizabeth City, NC, History". United States Coast Guard web site. http://www.uscg.mil/d5/airstation/ecity/history.html. Retrieved 2006-12-16. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ CGAS Elizabeth City Info, http://www.uscg.mil/d5/airstation/ecity/info.html

External links

• CGAS Elizabeth City official site

United States Coast Guard portal