b'U . S .M i l i t a r yThe T-45 Goshawk training jet like those at NAS Kingsville U.S. Customs & Border Protection P-3 Orion narcotics unit at NASCCwing aircraft began to play an increasingly prominent role in military operationsyears since the conversion, thousands of Naval aviators earned their basic training in Korea and then Vietnam. The facility has expanded throughout the years towings at NAS Corpus Christi, and then completed their basic jet training at NAS quietly evolve into the largest and most sophisticated military helicopter repairKingsville, many in preparation for aircraft carrier duty, the most perilous in the facility in the entire world, as well as the largest civilian employer in the Coastalworld of military aviation.Bend, with more than 4,000 personnel. In addition to helicopter repair and resto- The U. S. Coast Guard operates both fixed and rotary wing flight operations at the ration, CCAD serves as a pilot and flight crew training facility for all service branch- Corpus Christi International Airport, as well as sea operations at bases located at es as well as foreign militaries. CCAD celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021.the Port of Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. U. S. Customs & Border Protection also In 1968, Naval Air Station Kingsville, located 35 miles southwest of NASCC, wasoperates a major flight facility at NASCC from which the agencys fleet of P-3 Orions commissioned as a stand-alone base for Naval jet training. The facility opened inlaunch operations that take them across Mexico, down its Pacific coast and that of 1942 as an auxiliary training field for Corpus Christi, but as the need for militaryCentral America, and across Panama in search of drug smugglers on the sea and in jet aviators grew, Kingsville was expanded and re-assigned accordingly. In the 55the air. More than ever, the Coastal Bend serves as a strategic national security hub. 66THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'