Oklahoma Naval Air History Maps

NATTC Photo Albums
1942 - 1946

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Most of these photos come from the Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum located in Norman, Oklahoma. There are many more photos within this website, you can find them in the booklets, WAVES section, Timeline and other sections. On Sepetember 20, 1942 NATTC, Norman was commissioned. These first few photos are of the ceremony. Notice how much of the soil is just freshly turned, no paved roads just yet. And looking south from the Administration Building you don't even see all the barracks completed. The base was put into action long before all of its buildings were completed.

The larege base auditorium / gymnasium, Building 92, was completed in March of 1943. In the center is the base chapel, Building 101. It was located on the north side of all the Ships' Service Buildings. It was not completed until October 1944. Devine services were held in the Ships' Service auditoriums until a dedicated chapel was built. On the right is Captain Griffin who I presume is greeting a civilian speaker at the new chapel.

Seen on the left is the official press photo taken when Captain Virgil C. Griffin assumed command of N.A.T.T.C. relieving Lieutenant Commander Norman S. Gallison on December 1, 1942. In the center is a classic photo taken with precision timing. It shows sailors marching to class by the large indoor Pool 28 in Area D. This photo is the intersetion of Constellation Avenue(running east and west) and Decatur Street (running north and south). The size of the trees indicates this photo was most likely taken in the 1950s but it would have been a common site during World War II as well. The photo on the right is an aerial photo taken of Owen Stadium (University Of Oklahoma) during a football game. It was taken sometime between September and November of 1943. In the background you can see the partially completed 900-unit war dormitory project started in August of 1943. Clearly visible in the distant background is NATTC.

Pictured left and center are photos of the USO that was located in the old armory building adjacent to the Sante Fe Train Depot. Sadly the beautiful building is no longer standing. Military personnel would find ample resources at the USO for writing letters and postcards back home which could be mailed for free under wartime regulations. The photo on the right? Well let's just say it's good to be young! Even a world war can't stop a little romance, nor should it.

The two photos on the left appear to be Navy Day, October 27, 1945 when NATTC hosted its first Open House to allow civilians to tour the base. The war had just officially ended with the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. The photo the right is a bit of a mystery. I believe it to be taken shortly after the base had closed down in March of 1946. The airplane hanger on the north side of the airplane apron are being used to store hay. You can see a vintage bailer behind the parked military airplane. I'm assuming the hay was from the grounds of the base. But the fact that a military plane still is found on the premises indicates, possibly, a move still-in-progress. By the time the base was reactivated in the 1952 the airplane hanger was gone.

Taken in the Fall of 1944 the first two photos are of a large group of NATTC personnel attending a football game at Owen Stadium. It's unclear what two teams were playing. Knowing this information would allow one to pinpoint the exact date of the photos. The women seen sitting together in front appear to be Women Marines, not WAVES. Unfortunately both photos are low resolution scans and made their way into this collection by mere chance. The photo on the top right is the University Of Oklahoma's NROTC 1st Battalion drilling at Owen Stadium on Navy Day June 14, 1945.

In the bottom left photo are six of the twelve men from the crew of the Escort Carrier Bogue, CVE-9, who were attending classes in the Line Maintenance School, Hanger 87, at NATTC Norman for four weeks in January 1944. CVE-9 was considered the "Queen of the Converted Carriers" because of its U-Boat sinking victories. Their story was featured in the February 3, 1944 edition of the Bull Horn, page 10. From left to right the men in the picture are: E. S. Omelina, ACMM, Waxahachie, TX; R. C. Davis, AMM1c, Gurtman, AR; P. Tobar, AMM2c, Scotts Bluff, NE; T. J. Lydon, AMM3c, Minooka, PA; G. H. Mettler, AMM2c, Sioux Falls, S. D.; G. M. Pecham, AM1c, Eugene, OR. The other six men can be found in a second photo featurered in the article as well.

These photos are taken from souvenir postcards purchased at NATTC. The top-left photo is a turret gun display found in one of the Ship's Service buildings, most likely the Aviation Ordnancemans' Area. The top-right photo shows an aerial view of a typical Captain's Inspection on the north side of the base. The bottom-left photo shows one of the Ship's Service buildings. The photo on the bottom-center to-date it is the only known photo identified of the East Gate up close. According to family folklore this is "the" gate where Thomas Minadeo and Lavonne Claunch first met before the big dance. Of course the gatehouse is long gone but not the memories! These photos were included as they are not found in any other publication from NATTC.

The first photo is a Marine baseball team at NATTC during WWII but year unknown. The other four photos are the NATTC Navy WAVES softball team coached by Bob Savage. After the war Savage would go on to a very successful coaching career and was inducted into the Iowa Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1969, the National High School Athletic Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 2001 and was the Des Moines Sunday Register coach of the year for the 1999-00 school year. He was only 21 when these photos were taken. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 86.

Photo Backside Below

These three photos below are among my favorite photos as well. Not so much for the content of the photo but the story behind the photos. The photo on the left was the official photo, taken of the airplane apron from atop of Building 87 looking northwestardly. The photos in the center and right were taken from the Bull Horn base newspaper from October 18, 1945. It's the story behind the official photo. Here is the write-up included with the two photos. "The life of a navy photographer is not all flash-bulbs, film and hypo--no, no. Sometimes he has to risk his very life and limb in order to get that "shot" to end all shots. Well, perhaps it isn't quite that serious but the reader can draw his own conclusions from these pictures. The upper left shot (middle photo below), a "Whitlowgraph" taken by James Whitlow, PhoM3c, the Photo Lab's youngest photog with 15 points toward discharge, shows Cole Weston, AM2c, a lad with more hypo than tinbending in his veins, riding the Hanger 87 elevator (door) to the top-most story of the building. Next pic (middle photo below), also a Whitlowgraph, gives us the same guy as he scales the last few feet of the ascent. Bottom composite (right photo below), a Whitlowgraph and a Westongraph, is really sumthin'. Note the artistic cutout accomplished by the Bull Horn cut-up boy. The pix are incidental." I estimate this photo to have been taken in the Fall of 1944, maybe as late as early 1945.

The photo on the left-top was taken in early 1943 of Naval hospital personnel relaxing on the south side of the Naval Hospital overlooking the Canadian River. The center-top photo was among a serious of photos taken in 1943 of sailors and WAVES working on the apron. The right-top photo includes a description below it.

Photo Backside Below