Naval Air Station Cubi Point U . S . Naval Air Station Cubi Point was a United States Navy aerial facility located at the edge of Naval Base Subic Bay and abutting the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines . Background . During the Korean War , Admiral Arthur W . Radford , Chief of Naval Operations saw the need for a naval air station at Cubi Point . It was a rugged and jungle - covered finger of land from Subic Naval Base . Radford believed the air station would be a vital link for the U . S . Navy in the Philippines . In spite of the magnitude of the job and the tremendous difficulties the construction involved , the project was approved by The Pentagon . Civilian contractors were initially contracted to fulfill the project , but after seeing the forbidding Zambales Mountains and the maze of jungle at Cubi Point , they claimed it could not be done . The Navy ' s Seabee s were then given the project and in 1951 , the Seabees began the first phase of the project . The first Seabees to arrive were MCB - 3 on October 2 , 1951 ; the second , MCB - 5 , arrived on November 5 , 1951 ; the third , MCB - 2 arrived early in 1952 . The first problem encountered was moving the fishing village of Banicain , which occupied a portion of the site for the new airfield . The town and its residents were moved to Olongapo , which became New Banicain . The former village of Banicain is now under of earth . The next , and biggest , issue was cutting mountain in half and moving soil to fill in Subic Bay and create a long runway . The Seabees blasted coral to fill a section of Subic Bay , filled swampland , removed trees as large as tall and in diameter . It was one of the largest earthmoving projects in the world , equivalent to the construction of the Panama Canal . The construction project took five years and an estimated 20 million man - hour s . The $ 100 million facility was commissioned on July 25 , 1956 and comprised an air station and an adjacent pier that was capable of docking the Navy ' s largest carriers . On December 21 , 1972 , Naval Air Station Cubi Point was renamed to honor Admiral Arthur W . Radford . Radford had the unusual honor of personally dedicating the facility . A plaque memorializing the occasion reads : Operations . Eventually , NAS Cubi Point served as the primary maintenance , repair and supply center for the 400 carrier - based aircraft of the Seventh Fleet ' s carrier force . During the Vietnam War , its jet engine shop turned out two jet engines per day to keep pace with demand . NAS Cubi Point and Naval Base Subic Bay were also prominently used during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield . On June 15 , 1991 , Mt . Pinatubo , only from Subic Bay , erupted and blanketed the facility in ash deep . Dependents were evacuated and the Navy began an intense clean - up effort to return the station to normal operations . Within two weeks , they returned the station back to limited operations . Within four weeks , the Navy had restored almost all services to most of the family housing . By September , most dependents had returned to Subic Bay and Cubi Point , but in the same month the Senate of the Philippines voted to require the United States to withdraw from all of its facilities in the Philippines . The withdrawal was completed in November 1992 and shortly after NAS Cubi Point became Cubi Point International Airport , later renamed Subic Bay International Airport .