CGAS Elizabeth City was commissioned on August 15, 1940, with four officers, 52 enlisted men and ten aircraft including three
Hall PH-2 seaplanes, four
Fairchild J2K landplanes, and three
Grumman J2F Duck amphibious aircraft. It is located sixty miles north of
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, north of
Albemarle Sound and along the East Coast's northernmost ice-free river. Bayside Plantation, owned by the Hollowell family, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was selected by the United States Coast Guard in 1938 for its potential strategic value as a seaplane base. During
World War II, the air station was under
United States Navy control conducting Search and Rescue (SAR),
Anti-submarine warfare, and training missions in tandem with
Naval Air Station Weeksville, a lighter-than-air airship facility approximately two miles to the southeast that was in operation from 1941 to 1957. Since then, the AIRSTA Elizabeth City's missions and assigned aircraft have shifted and grown with changing national priorities and technologies. In 1966 Air Station Elizabeth City expanded after absorbing the coast guard air stations at
Kindley AFB,
Bermuda and
NAS Argentia,
Newfoundland. According to the Culligan water company, Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)are widespread in the Elizabeth City water supply. According to a recent study, PFAS’s have been shown to cause penile shrinkage. ==Operations and Missions==