Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: jrll@Portia.stanford.edu (john ralls) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: NAS Bermuda Message-ID: <7828@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 28 Jun 89 12:28:42 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 36 Approved: military@att.att.com From: john ralls fjs@floyd.ATT.COM writes: >I was vacationing in Bermuda (British owned ? ) 3 weeks ago and was very >surprised to find a U.S. Naval Air Station (NAS Bermuda I suppose) there >outside of Hamilton. > >What significance does this "NAS" have for us? There seems to be no >portioned area for docking a ship of any decent size, not to mention >the whole place is surrounded by coral reef and very shallow water. That is NAS Kindley. There is another, smaller US Navy station in the Great Sound, on a little peninsula on the western side, called Naval Station King's Point, I think (my memory is a bit hazy). Both were bases given to the US in return for fifty antique destroyers in the opening days of World War II (the Atlantic Charter). I have no idea what King's Point is for, but Kindley is immensely useful as a refuelling stop for antisub patrol missions in the atlantic. Bermuda has a wonderful central location which complements Iceland necely for such things. Why should an Air Station need a pier? The only one which jumps to mind as having one is NAS North Island in San Diego... and I think that is more accident than design. Incidentally, when I was in Bermuda in the late sixties, Kindley belonged to the Air Force. I think they were using it for a way station on the way to europe; they realized in the early seventies that most of their planes could get to europe without stopping, and gave it to the Navy. John