in 1938 the navy did an investigation on the best suitable location for our naval air station when the authorization came from congress to establish naval air station, there were 12 in all. including corpus christi, or flower bluff. this was the biggest and the best, and remains over these like 75 years. so vitally, critically important in the defense of the united states. >> paris, undefended, fell into the conquest.

>> in june of 1940 over in europe and world war ii already having begun, it just made clearer the urgency of getting a naval air station, the funding was authorized to be $24 million. and by the time they finished it was well over $100 million. it grew bigger and bigger and the need for the additional fields. and there would be five of them for the primary or the intermediate or advanced training, instrument training building. so eventually, this became the largest naval air station, not just in the united states but in the world. by the time of the dedication in march of 1941 the main station was 70% completed by that time.

and they -- they already were bringing in cadets also at that time for the training even they had airplanes. they had cadets doing the ground school training. the very first cadet graduates, november 1st 1941 and so then we had just about a month later the attack on pearl harbor, in which the base went on complete 24 hours, seven-day a week alert. and everything would be changed. the very fact that there was so many that had been done in preparation for a war, that that again the timing of the base and the coming of the war was,

again, incredible part of this story. the initial requirements were very rigorous requiring two years of college before they would accept the cadet training. and then by 1942 it was only required to be a high school graduate. so imagine, for example, by 1943 18-year-old george h walker bush became one of the men to receive their wings. 18 years of age, they say perhaps the youngest of any cadets during world war ii to actually be commissioned. there were so many others, for example, 1944 there was john glen. and among the most advanced of the graduates they would be marine aviators.

everybody knows about bob barker, he became a radio and tv host. the price is right, and he received his wings here in 1944. all the things and more that you would expect from a top grade naval air station. that describes the naval air station corpus christi. it was featured at that time during the war, a wonderful 1943 issue of "life magazine" with photographs and all showing the cadets, so we were on the map, corpus christi, which had been just kind of a laid downtown earlier now becomes the place for naval aviation. after the war that's kind of a sad story with such a rapid demobile iization and the

layoffs, so there was a brief period when the base was virtually closed. with vietnam, and the helicopter repair work that was critical for that conflict and all that was conducted here. so ever since the 1960s, and earlier in korea, this base has remained critically important for the national defense. >> this building that we're in now, this is the headquarters building for the staff. it's so named as building two because building one is the building that houses the commander of naval air training here on the base. sinatra is a command that does all of navy training in

corpus christi. there are a lot of other bases, whiting field, and sinatra runs naval training for all of those bases, but they're headquartered here, so they're the primary tenant. that's the purpose of this base. >> numerous sources, student aviators will initially go through pensacola for ground school training and then they will either go to pensacola, or whiting field for primary training, or come down here to corpus christi for primary training. primary training is basically where they learn how to fly. this is the initial point where they're getting into an aircraft and learning their craft for the first time. and upon conclusion of the primary training, they will then, based on their grades and needs of the navy determination will be made on where they will

go next. they do jet training maritime training, or helicopter training. those are the three courses. here at corpus christi, we train -- the training wing does training for roughly about 450 students are graduated each year. there's about 900 at any one time that are here. and so during -- of that time during the year you'll have about 400 or so that will go through primary training and then there's about the same number in a are going through the maritime multiengine training. the change in training over the years from over the history of the life of this air station is not a lot of change, except for the technology. we got more advanced aircraft. they're faster more maneuverable. the techniques have been honed over the years to be more

efficient. the safety record is by and large much much more improved. it was not uncommon in the '40s and '50s to have mishaps on routine basis here. it was part of the training. it just kind of was chalked up to that's kind of what happens. and naval aviation took a quick turn as years went by to figure out how to make things better and safer and more efficient. i would say that the number of trainees that we have now compared to the early history of this base makes a difference that, you know when this base started, we're 1941 we're looking at world war ii. so we're not even with afghanistan and iraq and things have gone on here lately this country even then was not in the scale of a conflict as world war ii. and the amount of ships and the amount of aircraft that were needed to conduct such a

conflict. and so not as many pilots are needed. and again, technology makes the weapons, the weapon systems of the aircraft themselves everything is more advanced. you can do more with less. you needless carrier battle groups, less pilots in order to do not just the same mission, but even more and more advanced missions. and so we don't need as many students here doing the training as you would back in like you said the '40s or '50s. the community support here is i would say second to none. i've been in the navy 23 years been based in a lot of places. and there is nowhere else i've ever been that provides better support for the military than the city of corpus christi. in 2016, we'll be celebrating the 75th anniversary, and that is something that -- that kind of synergy between the military and community here is something that really makes all of this work so well.

>> find out where c-span city tour is going next. you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span-3. each week american history tv's real america brings you archive films that help tell the story of the 20th century. >> once the public health service authorized the release the polio vaccine can begin to protect american youngsters. in 1955 over 10 million children received one or more injections of vaccines. including this boy, the

president's own grandson david eisenhower. and now like millions of boys and girls across the nation david, too, is protected against polio, free to play and enjoy the delights of summertime with the president, his grand father. from the united states public health service, a report on these vaccinations in 1955 by the distinguished former surgeon general, dr. leonard a.sheeley. >> it's my very pleasant duty to report to you the results of polie oh vaccinations to date finding on the effectiveness of the vaccine and that is good news indeed. it is based on reports from 22 states and new york city among vaccinated children, as you can

see, the attack rate for paralytic polio was 6.3 per hundred thousand. the unvaccinated attack rate was 29.22 per 100,000, almost four times as high. the studies involved about 8.5 million children whose ages range from five to 11 years. even though most of the children had only one injection instead of the full dosage of three, the vaccine was found to be about 78% effective. put another way, the boys and girls who received at least one injection of vaccine had about four times as much protection as those without it. we can all be proud of the saulk vaccine. we can share in the hope that this victory will lead to many more in the years ahead. >> the second given not less than two weeks after the first,

the third not less than seven months later, your child or any member of your family eligible for polio vaccine in your community should be vaccinated now. vaccination now will save lives from death or paralysis this year. make use of increasing supplies of vaccine. help your child grow up strong and straight, free from crippling polio. youngsters like david eisenhower, like polio pioneer randy kerr are part of a bright new future a future which will see the unconditional sun render of infan tile paralysis. >> american history tv visited ford theater in washington, d.c. on the night of april 14th 1865 abraham lincoln was mortally wounded as he