page_title: Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: An old munitions bunker from Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara, used as a storage building by UC Santa Barbara.
context_page_description: Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara was a United States Marine Corps air station that was located in Goleta, California 70 miles north of Los Angeles during World War II. It was also known as the Goleta Air Station in the 1940s. Commissioned on December 4, 1942, the air station consisted of an airfield that had been built into the Goleta Slough and served as a training base for numerous squadrons before they deployed to support combat operations in the Pacific Theater. Later in the war, the station would serve as home to Marine squadrons that were trained to operate from aircraft carriers providing close air support for their fellow Marines on the ground. Following the surrender of Japan and the subsequent drawdown of forces that ensued, the air station closed its doors in 1946 and today its property is home to the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport and the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
context_section_description: After the outbreak of war, the United States Army Air Corps began to build revetments and station P-40 interceptors at the airfield. The first Marines at Goleta came on June 14, 1942 with the arrival of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and VMSB-243 and VMSB-244, and expanded construction on the base began a month later on May 29, 1942. The field was officially commissioned on December 4, 1942. However, throughout 1942, the threat of a Japanese strike against the West Coast of the United States kept the base on very high alert, especially after the raid against Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
  The advanced echelon of Marine Base Defense Aircraft Group 42 arrived in January 1943 and would remain for the duration of the war.  Conditions surrounding the base also improved in early 1943, when the local slaughterhouse burned down and the hog farm was abandoned. Two unique conditions that affected the base were that U.S. Route 101 ran through the middle of it and during the course of the war, United Air Lines continued to use the field.
  In early 1944, after the Battle of Tarawa, where many felt that close air support left much to be desired, General Holland Smith recommended that Marine aviators be trained to operate from aircraft carriers. In July 1944, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Alexander Vandegrift held a meeting with Admiral Chester Nimitz where it was agreed that Marine aircraft would be placed on a certain number of escort carriers to provide close air support for Marines during amphibious landings. This led to the establishment of the Marine Carrier Air Group (MCVG) and the establishment of a command known as Marine Carrier Groups Pacific, which would be based at MCAS Santa Barbara.  The goal for the unit was to have eight air groups ready for the expected invasion of Japan late in 1945.
  At its peak, the station housed nearly 500 officers, about 3,100 enlisted men, and 440 women Marines. A total of 24 squadrons trained at the base during the war and 101 aviation accidents occurred at the station during training. Following the war, the Marine Corps considered making MCAS Santa Barbara a permanent installation. However, the city of Santa Barbara opposed this, since the area was needed for its municipal airport, as no other land nearby was suitable. The Marine Corps Air Station went into caretaker status on March 1, 1946, and it was released to the War Assets Administration for disposal two months later. Substantial portions of the former air station now compose the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, while the rest is the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. A former hangar houses the Goleta/Santa Barbara Air Heritage Museum.
caption: An old munitions bunker used as a storage building by UCSB.
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