The development of
several army air bases between Patchogue and Montauk Point as a part
of the national defense program, especially as it relates to the
protection of the metropolitan area in the event of war, is proposed
to be undertaken in the immediate future as the result of surveys
now being completed by military officials and engineers.
This fact was made
public last Tuesday by Supervisor Edgar A. Sharp in an address
before the Lincoln Republican club at its annual meeting in
Patchogue and followed a series of private conferences held during
the past several weeks between Supervisor Sharp and government
officials and air corps specialists.
Without divulging
the sites of these proposed bases, Supervisor Sharp pointed out that
they will be an entirely different type than those previously
constructed by the army in that they will be either underground or
else in heavily wooded areas where there would be little possibility
of their detection from the air by an invading aerial force.
Mr. Sharp told his
audience that defense experts realize very keenly the strategic
importance of this section of Long Island in time of war and the
necessity for losing no time in setting up these additional
airbases. These, he said, he had been advised, would be of the
utmost significance in combating, not only an air force aiming to
strike at New York but also one that might seek the destruction of
the huge munition plants located along the Connecticut shore of Long
Island sound.
He continued to
relate that these military experts had informed him that existing
airports on Long Island located at LaGuardia airport, Floyd Bennett
field and Mitchel field would be inadequate and possibly ineffective
in beating off an attack on New York because of their proximity to
New York. These army officials told Mr. Sharp, he said, that Long
Island offers the natural pathway to New York to an invading air
force and by the time such a squadron reached the airports in the
west end of the island it would be too late for planes there to get
into the air and beat off such an attack.
To offset this
apparent weakness is the reason for the establishment of these
additional bases between here and the eastern extremity of Long
Island, Mr. Sharp set forth.
He then went on to
point out the necessity for developing these new types of airports
which are not evident from the air, since modern bombing planes
could readily damage existing bases in the west end of the island,
as they are wholly above the ground and offer an easy aerial target.
In this connection
he told of the incident related to him by one of the experts who has
been here studying the situation, in an observation flight with the
British over German territory. This official told Mr. Sharp that
they knew a Nazi air base was located in a certain sector but all
efforts to detect it from a safe altitude were in vain. Finally a
dive bomber shot down from the British squadron and as he reached a
low altitude saw planes “roaring out from underground like so many
worms.”
It is something on
this type of air base that is contemplated for Suffolk County, Mr.
Sharp said, and they will be constructed in accordance with the
topography of the sites selected, either below the ground or above
in a heavily protected area. Indications are that little time will
be lost in putting into effect this newest phase of the defense
program which would convert the thinly populated sections of Suffolk
county into key posts for heading off an enemy air armada.
This article is from the Mid-Island Mail
Date: January 22, 1941