A recently refurbished, World War II-era airfield is the second such site the Marine Corps has reactivated this year for air training and operations.
The Marine Corps in August announced the $28 million overhaul of the airfield at Camp Davis, North Carolina, less than 25 miles from Camp Lejeune. That move followed the service’s June recertification of an airfield on the Pacific island of Peleliu.
The two locations are crucial for Marine plans to improve the service’s aviation capabilities, both in future operations and in training.
A particular challenge for Marines is to effectively execute the service’s Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations mission, which seeks to disperse small Marine units across vast distances. This approach relies heavily on aircraft support, from precision strike and reconnaissance to refueling and resupply.
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“Aviation and ground units across the region will be able to use this runway to exercise the full spectrum of training capabilities in preparation for missions around the globe, to include simulating austere airfield conditions in conjunction with Expeditionary Advanced Basing Operations,” said Col. Ralph Rizzo, Marine Corps Installations East commander.
While the North Carolina location adds more air options for training, the Peleliu airstrip puts Marine and joint military aircraft within 1,000 miles of Manila, Philippines, and 1,400 miles from the bulk of Marine forces in Okinawa, Japan.
That positioning gives units flowing into the region an aircraft refit and refuel point just beyond the first island chain surrounding China.
The 18-month Camp Davis revamp, meanwhile, saw the aged runway “torn up, raised and resurfaced with three layers of rock, gravel and asphalt,” according to the installation release.
Workers then installed concrete landing pads and an apron designed to handle “high-intensity heat generated during hovering, landing and turning maneuvers.”
Those features are especially important because the Corps plans to use the airfield, located north of Holly Ridge in the Greater Sandy Run Training Area, as a multipurpose landing field.
That means it will have to handle every Marine airframe, from the KC-130 Hercules to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, MV-22 Osprey, other rotary wing aircraft and the Air Force’s heavy lift C-17.
The 4,525-foot airstrip holds a 3,600-foot asphalt runway and concrete turnarounds at each end for vertical take-offs and landings, such as those conducted by the Osprey.
The entire airfield occupies about 275 acres.
The Camp Davis airfield was originally an Army installation, built in 1941 for use as an anti-aircraft artillery training center during World War II, according to the Marine release.
The Army ceased using the installation in 1946. The property was absorbed into the Navy’s Greater Sandy Run Training Area in 1992, and used primarily by rotary wing units at Marine Air Station New River.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
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