The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-02
Holly Ridge Makes Strides
To Perfect Navy's Ram-Jet

men. The landing craft has
a four-man crew.
The vessels will be docked at
lSears' Landing, halfway from the
camp to Topsail strand. The KEEL
lex Corporation has put in a new
drawbridge over the inland water
way at that crossing.
Five-inch rockets are being fired
! daily from the Topsail sand spits,
several miles from Camp. Davis.
to aid in celebration of range il
struments.
Designated as a possible perma-
nent test base for the Navy a
movement of instruments is cur
rently in process from Fl. Miles.
| Delaware where tests have been
made during the last year.
The first tests were conducted in
New Jersey early in 1945 after
| several months research into the
problem.
No text books were available on
the subject and scientists of the
laboratories were forced ito grope
for the answers" in their attempt
| tc break down the mysteries sur
rounding super-sonic flight
Camp Davis has gone through a
| complete face-lifting job with one
fourth of the area having been
converted into office space, ma
chine shops and living quarters for
employees of the Kellex Corpo-
ration and officers and enlisted
personnel of the Navy.
Originally a training centeN used
by units at the United States
Army, the facility was later used
by the Marine Corps for training
of Dutch Netherland Marines.
A highlight of the reconversion
OF the camp lies. in the use OF
surplus materials in the erection
of any needed buildings and the
using OF present buildings to fill
requirements of the project.
The camp was turned over to
the Navy by the Marine Corps on
June /, 1916. The Kellex Corpo-
ration moved in the next day TO
begin the converting of the facility
ard the construction of a highway
along Topsail Strand.
Th~ree-fourths of the camp had
been declared surplus and many
of the buildings were torn down
by the Federal Public Housing ad-
ministration and shipped to Wash
irgton, D. C. and Cleveland, Ohio
to be converted into housing units.
The central part of the camp
was left intact and it was this
portion upon which Kellex started
its renovating processes.
Hospital units were arranged to
take advantage of a central heat
ing unit and yer converted into
apartments for Naval and execu-
tive personnel. Some are five
room units with several having
been converted into six-room liv-
ing quarters. All are complete
with kitchen laundry, bath, living
room and bedrooms.
Other units have been convert
ed into barracks for enlisted men
while storerooms and smaller
buildings have been torn down and
moved to Topsail.
The camp itself, according tc
Harris, PLAYED a large part in the
establishing. of the permanent test
base at Holly Ridge. It was point
&c out that time, money and ma
t~erials had been saved by the de
cision.
The over-Water firing range viii
parallel the sand spit adjoining the
former camp site along a % m
course reaching from New Topsai.
Inlet to New River Inlet. A new
highway a S been constructed
along the strand to aid in ~accessi-
bility to towers, instruments anc
other equipment used in tests.
Harris pointed out that there
would be nc danger to residents
of the IN and stressed the FAC
that all possible safety precautions
had been taken for the projection
Of land and water travel.
Test units will be launched in
a northeasterly direction within a
80, 000-yard range from a point one
mile northeast of New Topsail in
let.
Fifty-foot observation stations
eight in number-have been con
structed along the 22-mile range,
overlooking the ocean, for track
! ing of units in flight. They will