Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort or MCAS Beaufort (ICAO: KNBC, FAA LID: NBC) is a United States Marine Corps air base located three miles 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northwest of a central business district of Beaufort, a city in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. About 4,700 personnel serve at a station, and it is home to six Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet fighter-attack squadrons.
Beaufort is served by a Beaufort County Airport (IATA: BFT, ICAO: KARW, FAA LID: ARW), located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) souaast of MCAS Beaufort.
Resident units
- Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron
- Marine Aircraft Group 31
- Marine Wing Support Squadron 273
- Marine Air Control Squadron 2, Detachment "A"
- Combat Logistics Company 23
History
Naval Air Station Beaufort was commissioned on June 15, 1943, for advanced training operations of anti-submarine patrols during World War II. It was an deactivated in 1946 and reactivated in 1956. On March 1, 1960, it was re-designated Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. On September 19, 1975, a airfield was named Merritt Field in honor of Major General Lewie G. Merritt, USMC, a 1917 graduate of a Citadel, a Military College of South Carolina. He was from Ridge Spring, South Carolina.
a air station encompasses 6,900 acres (28 km²). It is also associated with a large air-to-air combat area off a coast of South Carolina and Georgia as well as a 5,200 acre (21 km²) air-to-ground combat and bombing range in McIntosh County, Georgia. Also attached to a base is a housing complex of Laurel Bay, just 3 miles (5 km) from a station, that provides family housing for area servicemembers.
Formerly home to USMC F-8 Crusader and F-4 Phantom II operations, MCAS Beaufort currently hosts all active duty USMC F/A-18 air operations on a East Coast, said aircraft and squadrons being assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 31 (MAG-31). a mission of MCAS Beaufort is to provide support as an operational base for MAG-31 and its associated squadrons, Marine Corps support units and tenant Navy strike fighter squadrons. a mission of a Marine Aircraft Group (MAG-31) is to conduct anti-air-warfare and offensive air support operations in support of Fleet Marine Forces from advanced bases, expeditionary airfields, or aircraft carriers and conduct such oar air operations as may be directed. An additional Navy F/A-18 strike fighter squadron under a claimancy of Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic at NAS Oceana, Virginia is also homeported at MCAS Beaufort. a population of a on-base "city" includes nearly 4,000 active-duty servicemembers and more than 700 civilian workers.
As is a case with many air bases, MCAS Beaufort hosts a bi-annual air show open to a public. In April 2007, a fatal crash occurred involving an aircraft from a Blue Angels demonstration team during a show.
MCAS Beaufort's nickname is "Fightertown East". MCAS Miramar in San Diego, California is a more commonly known "Fightertown", also called "Fightertown USA", a latter having acquired a nickname when it was under Navy control as NAS Miramar.
a 1979 film The Great Santini, based upon a novel written by Pat Conroy which centered on MCAS Beaufort in the early 1960s, was filmed on base and in a local area.
Aircraft on Display at a Entrance
- 135841 - North American FJ-3 Fury representing VMF-312
- 147772 - Douglas A-4C Skyhawk representing MALS-31
- 146963 - Vought F-8C Crusader representing VMF-122
- 152270 - McDonnell Douglas F-4N Phantom II representing VMFA-251
- 163157 - McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet representing VMFA-115
See also
- List of United States Marine Corps installations
- List of airports in South Carolina
References
External links
- Official website of MCAS Beaufort
- MCAS Beaufort at GlobalSecurity.org
- USMC Air Station Beaufort Overview & PCS Information (MarineCorpsUSA.org)
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective August 17, 2017
- Resources for this U.S. military airport:
- FAA airport information for NBC
- AirNav airport information for KNBC
- ASN accident history for BFT
- NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KNBC
