Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum

About the Author & Book

Commissioned as Navy Section Base 9 in 1917, the US Coast Guard
Training Center at Cape May stands on the site of a former amusement
park that bordered the Atlantic Ocean a few miles east of Cape May
in southern New Jersey. Dirigibles, submarines, and minesweepers were
based here during World War I. Because of its proximity to the ocean
and Delaware Bay, the base was used by Coast Guard patrol boats and
cutters to chase rumrunners during Prohibition in the 1920s. An airfield
was established adjacent to the base in 1926, and in 1940, both combined
to become Naval Air Station Cape May. The station protected the coast
line from German U-boats during World War II. The Coast Guard took
over the facility in 1946, and in 1948, the base became the only recruit
training center in the country, today graduating more than 4,000 recruits
per year.

Joseph E. Salvatore, MD, is the non-salaried executive director of
the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum. Joan Berkey is an
architectural historian and author. US Coast Guard Training Center at
Cape May contains photographs and images from the museum’s archives,
most of them previously unpublished.

In stock now!