Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Northwestern Washington State
© 2002, © 2005 by Paul Freeman. Revised 11/1/05.
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Oak Harbor Naval Seaplane Base, Oak Harbor, WA
48.29 North / 122.63 West (Northwest of Seattle, WA)
The peninsula of Maylor's Point extends south out into Crescent Harbor.
It was settled by the Maylor family in the mid-1800's.
In early 1941, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations asked the Commandant of the 13th Naval District
to find a location for the re-arming & refueling of Navy patrol planes operating in defense of Puget Sound.
The commanding officer of Naval Air Station Seattle recommended the site
of Saratoga Passage on the shores of Crescent Harbor & Forbes Point
as a base suitable for seaplane takeoffs & landings under instrument conditions
The land of Maylor's Point was sold by the Maylor family to the Federal Government
for the purpose of constructing a seaplane base.
The seaplane base was commissioned in 1942.
A landplane airfield, Ault Field, was commissioned a year later, a few miles northwest.
Together, the two installations comprised Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
The first seaplane to land at the base was a PBY Catalina, which arrived in late 1942.
Several PBM seaplanes were aboard by the summer of 1944.
A 1944 aerial view looking northwest at the Oak Harbor seaplane base (National Archives photo).
A 1944 photo of a PBY-5A of VP-62 on the ramp at Oak Harbor (National Archives photo).
PBY patrol bombers took off with a churning of water & a roar of engines for their practice runs in Saratoga Passage,
then returned, skimming the hill above the hangar & settling into the bay to repeat the maneuver.
Residents of Oak Harbor soon became accustomed to the circling bombers training for the real thing in the Aleutian Islands.
A 1945 photo of a captured Japanese Kawanishi H8K2 Emily at Oak Harbor, with Navy PBMs behind it.
The Emily was one of the highest performance flying boats of WW2.
The Oak Harbor seaplane base, as depicted on the April 1945 Bellingham Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Originally commissioned as a temporary station, operations slowed at war's end.
However, with the onset of the Korean conflict, the base was taken out of reduced operating status.
VP-50 moved up from Alameda in 1956, returning seaplanes to NAS Whidbey.
The Oak Harbor seaplane base, as depicted on the 1962 Bellingham Sectional Chart (courtesy of John Voss).
Kelly Siebecke recalled, “My dad was a Navy bombardier/navigator stationed at NAS Whidbey from 1958-77.
While we lived in Navy housing all around the base until 1970,
my earliest memory of base-living was in the old (WWII) officer's quarters
at the NAS Whidbey Seaplane Base on Coral Sea Avenue.
Red foxes used to roam the woods & subsequent fields surrounding the older-smaller officer's housing
and deer & rabbits were in abundance & seen quite frequently.
We had a wonderful view of Crescent Harbor & Camano Island
and the frequently anchored USS Salisbury Sound (stationed at NAS Whidbey from 1964-67).
Although my dad flew in A-3's at the time in VAH-6 I LOVED the P5M seaplanes!
To this day, some of my clearest memories of NAS WI
are of seeing the 'Sally Sound' anchored & watching the P5M's take off & land in the water.”
Flying the P5M-2 Marlin, patrol squadrons dominated the base until the 1960s.
VP-1, the last patrol squadron of that era, left Whidbey in 1970 for Barbers Point, Hawaii.
The seaplane base was closed at an unknown date after that.
Fulton Recepcion recalled, "I lived in Oak Harbor from 1974-77.
I lived in base housing that was up the hill from the seaplane base.
Of course there were no Sea Planes operating there anymore
(except, I remember seeing a civilian Cessna with floats on the old tarmac).
I was on hand for the opening of the new Navy Exchange in 1977 when the old hangar took that role.
The white administration building was where I went to kindergarten in 1976.
I don't think it's being used in that role anymore.
In 1986, I visited Whidbey, and we passed by the old building & it didn't look like it was being used,
well at least not as a school.
I remember vividly the parking lot being paved when I went to school there.
Looking at the recent photo, I'm glad my old school building is still there,
for I was afraid they would've torn it down by now."
As seen in the 1990 USGS aerial photo, the remaining facilities at the seaplane base consist of a 2,000' square paved area,
at least one hangar, and three seaplane ramps which descend into the waters of the Puget Sound.
A marina for small boats has been built extending from the west side of the seaplane base.
According to former NAS Whidbey Island resident Rick Morgan,
"The Seaplane base is still owned by the Navy & the old hangar,
believe it or not, was rebuilt into the base exchange.
The new commissary is the larger building just south of the hangar on the ramp in the picture.
The old seaplane tower now sports a large radome with electronic simulators for the EA-6B force at Ault Field.
It's the white dome on the cliff below the old seaplane tender pier.
The marina on the west side of the neck is owned by the city of Oak Harbor.
The former base headquarters & admin building is the white structure at the top of the picture."
A 2003 photo by James Bond of the former Oak Harbor seaplane hangar.
As of 2005, a group called the The PBY Memorial Foundation
is trying to raise funds to construct a hangar in Oak Harbor to display a restored PBY Catalina seaplane.
A 2005 photo by Paul Freeman looking northeast at the entrance to the Navy Exchange,
with the big former hangar door just to the right.
The author of this website, Paul Freeman, visited the former seaplane base in 2005.
From the inside of the Navy Exchange, you would never guess you were inside a former seaplane hangar.
Yet the outside of the building remains completely recognizable,
with the big sliding steel hangar doors on both sides of the building.
The large paved expanse of the former seaplane ramp also remains intact.
A 2005 photo by Paul Freeman looking southwest at the former seaplane hangar.
A 2005 photo by Paul Freeman looking southeast down the former seaplane ramp.
See also: http://www.naswi.navy.mil/history-rel3.html
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