The Seabees in 1942 constructed the airfield. They built a x runway and a ramp area sufficient for 24 single-engine aircraft, dredging coral to expand the island. Of the area of the expanded island, the airfield took up . The Navy designated this airfield as Naval Air Facility French Frigate Shoals, an auxiliary of Naval Station Pearl Harbor. The 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake generated a tsunami that swept clean Tern Island, and the Navy closed the naval air facility.