Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

Fritzsche Army Air Field

During the 1940s and 1950s, a small airfield within the Fort Ord Main Garrison was present in what is now the South Parade Ground. In the early 1960s, Fritzsche Army Airfield (FAAF) was completed. The Main Garrison airfield was then decommissioned and its facilities were redeveloped as motor pools and other facilities.

 

The Fritzsche Army Airfield is in the northern portion of Fort Ord, on the north side of Reservation Road. The primary land use was for military/industrial support operations; facilities included air strips, a motor park, aircraft fuel facilities, a sewage treatment plant, aircraft maintenance facilities, an air control tower, a fire and rescue station, and aircraft hangars. On July 1, 1991, the BRAC Commission recommended closure of Fort Ord and the relocation of the 7th Infantry Division to Fort Lewis, WA.

 

The former Fritzsche Army Airfield (now renamed Marina Municipal Airport) was converted into a general aviation facility which will complement the adjoining University of California (UC) Center for Science, Technology, Education and Policy (STEP Center). The existing facilities were reused and 31 acres north of the runway were available for new development desiring an airport location.

 

The Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (NPS/CIRPAS) is currently based at the Marina Municipal Airport. The hangar facility provides a 10,000 sq ft floor with offices and work rooms lined down both sides on two levels. The facility includes a machine shop, electronics room and a calibration lab for the upkeep of scientific instrumentation. CIRPAS is a partnership program between the Naval Postgraduate School and California Institute of Technology which employes both manned and unmanned aircraft to support atmospheric and oceanographic measurements.

Copied with permission from globalsecurity.com

 

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Updated 8 February 2016