Thousands of Coastal Bend base jobs threatened (Naval Station Ingleside)

INGLESIDE, Texas — For years, Naval Station Ingleside had been a key part of this quiet bayside community 12 miles north of Corpus Christi.

Rumors had been flying that the base was doomed under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's current round, so civilian and military officials said they were not surprised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had put Ingleside on the list.

"It was not unexpected," City Manager Mike Rhea said. "We're just going to have to go from here."

In the past 17 years, new restaurants and chain motels sprouted to accommodate the base's visitors and temporary workers. Personnel sent children to area schools and housing began to boom.

Military from the base also frequented Corpus Christi restaurants and shopping malls, Nueces County Commissioner Peggy Banales said.

"We definitely all want to keep our sites open," she said. "This is something that would affect the whole area."

The proposed Ingleside closure comes on top of a proposed realignment that would cost about 1,000 personnel at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and its tenant, the Corpus Christi Army Depot.

Gary Bushell, a veteran who is consultant to the South Texas Military Task Force, said the base weathered a threat to move operations to Florida in the early 1990s and could withstand this proposed closure.

He said that with the proposed closing of Naval Station Pascagoula in Mississippi, security along the nation's southern coast would be severely compromised. He said the refinery-dotted Texas Gulf Coast was under more of a threat from modern terrorists than it might have been from the Soviet era, when much of the region's military bases were established.

"We never really thought the Soviet navy would come at us through the Gulf of Mexico but we know terrorists will come at us through the Gulf of Mexico," he said.

At the Ingleside Chamber of Commerce, where a slogan is "We're Navy Proud," president Roger Wright said the city would suffer in the short term if the base were closed, but would survive.

He said two new liquefied natural gas plants were coming to the community, and it was likely a major container port will be located there as well. British Petroleum was planning to start building its second giant offshore oil rig there soon, meaning thousands of jobs.

"Ingleside will do well," he said. "We have a very resilient community, we have a great group of leaders.

But Luis Lama, owner of Floyd's Ranch House, a restaurant, said he wasn't so sure.

"Definitely it would take a chunk of our customer base," he said. "If they asked me to vote, I'd vote keep it."

He wondered what would happen when all the military newlyweds left at once and tried to sell their homes.

"I really believe that we're going to have plenty of foreclosures," he said. "The market was booming for the military."

Naval Station Ingleside
Ingleside TX

Naval Station Ingleside is located on the northern shore of Corpus Christi Bay, 12 miles northeast of the city of Corpus Christi, about 150 miles south of San Antonio, and approximately 200 miles south of Houston. This region is known as the Coastal Bend. The Naval Station is ideally situated astride the Corpus Christi ship channel, which links the Port of Corpus Christi with the Gulf of Mexico. South Texas Navy is made up of commands and units aboard Naval Station Ingleside, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, and Naval Air Station Kingsville.

A groundbreaking ceremony on February 20, 1988, marked the beginning of Naval Station Ingleside. On April 9, 1990, the Station and the community dedicated Hayden W. Head Boulevard, the main thoroughfare providing access from the community to the Station.

Named for a distinguished citizen of South Texas who played a major role in bringing Naval Station Ingleside to the Coastal Bend, this event symbolized the partnership between the Navy and South Texas in the common enterprise of Naval Station Ingleside. That same month, the Station received its first unit of the Operating Forces of the Navy on-berth when USS LEXINGTON (AVT 16) visited Corpus Christi Bay.

Work on the various military construction projects proceeded to the point where the Chief of Naval Operations established Naval Station Ingleside as an activity of the Shore Establishment of the Department of the Navy in a "development" status as of June 1, 1990. By September 1990, sufficient construction had been completed to permit Naval Station Ingleside's military and civilian "plank owners" to move aboard the Station from temporary office and working spaces in the community.Later that same month, the Naval Station's modern and very capable waterfront was dedicated. The "move aboard" was completed when the Station accepted the Headquarters Building on December 14, 1990.

Although originally planned as the homeport of a training aircraft carrier, USS LEXINGTON, and a battleship, USS WISCONSIN (BB 64) and its surface action group, changes in the Navy's force structure caused these ships to be decommissioned. However, on May 3, 1991, the Secretary of the Navy announced plans to homeport Avenger Class mine countermeasures ships and Osprey Class coastal mine hunters at Ingleside. Construction continued to support what was now designated the Navy's "Mine Warfare Center of Excellence."

The Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commander of the revitalized Mine Warfare Command made good on the commitment when USS SCOUT (MCM 8) reported to its new homeport at Ingleside on June 25, 1992. Two weeks later, Commander, Naval Surface Forces, US Atlantic Fleet, placed Naval Station Ingleside in an "operation" status on July 6, 1992, during the same ceremony that marked the Station's first change of command.

The Navy continues the process of consolidating the operations and training of its mine countermeasures forces in South Texas under the leadership of Commander, Mine Warfare Command. Naval Station Ingleside is a vital component of this concept of operations. Currently 25 of the Navy's newest mine countermeasures ships, coastal mine hunters and MCM command and control ship, USS Inchon, call Ingleside home

NAVSTA Ingleside was originally constructed to accommodate a Battle Group composed of a battleship, a large aircraft carrier, and several smaller vessels. These plans led to the construction of a 1,100 ft pier, with additional berthing space provided along two quay walls. Ingleside is now home port to the Navy's Mine Warfare Force, comprised of 14 MCM-1 Avenger Mine Countermeasure Class vessels, 10 MHC-51 Osprey Mine Hunter Class vessels and the Mine Countermeasures Command, Control and Support Ship USS Inchon (MCS-12). The 1,100 ft pier has a deck height of 23.5 ft above mean tide level. The east and west quay walls are 13.5 ft above mean water. Project depths are 45 ft for the east basin and 35 ft for the west basin.

Ingleside, Texas is located near 27°49'N 97°12'W on the north side of Corpus Christi Bay. Corpus Christi Bay is located on the south Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Naval Station (NAVSTA) Ingleside is situated adjacent to Corpus Christi Channel on the north side of Corpus Christi Bay, about 8.5 nmi west of the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

According to US Coast Pilot 5, vessels should anchor off Aransas Pass in the Aransas Pass Fairway Anchorages. There is no suitable anchorage for deep-draft vessels inside Aransas Pass. Shallow-draft vessels of up to 10 ft draft can anchor about 1 nmi inside Aransas Pass in an area just north of Inner Basin. Other shallow-draft anchorages can be found in Corpus Christi Bay in depths of 13 to 15 ft.

A heavy weather mooring system was designed and installed for mooring the US Navy’s fleet of minehunters and minesweepers homeported at NAVSTA Ingleside. The system was based on a modified Mediterranean mooring configuration that allows clusters of vessels to be moored together. Alternative locations for these moorings were not available due to the lack of deep draft areas in the Corpus Christi Bay area. The bows of each vessel cluster tie into a mooring plate that is secured to two chain ground legs. The sterns of each vessel cluster are secured to the Naval Stations berthing pier using a spring-line arrangement. The system can accommodate up to 24 vessels in four clusters of six vessels each. The systems were design to withstand winds in excess of 110 miles per hour and accommodate storm surges of 11 feet. Since the mooring systems were installed in the middle of the Naval Station’s operational basin, the moorings had to be submerged during normal operational periods. So, a modified YC "mooring barge" with a mounted A-frame and winch system is utilized to recover a pick-up line attached to the mooring plate. The mooring plate is brought back up to the deck of the YC to make the connection to the vessel cluster.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/ingleside.htm

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