also significant for corpus christi, he got his wings at the naval air station corpus christi. at is another attachment to corpus christi for president herbert walker bush. this airplane he flew. and people know that he got shot down during the course of the war. but also, he went down another time due to an oil pressure problem. when he went down that first time, he was rescued and ended up on the lexington for a couple of days, until he could get back to his aircraft carrier, the san jacinto. he came on board and spoke at an event we had. he did not remember too much of his time on board the lexington. he says he does remember what he calls sack time, sleeping a lot, on lexington. not very historical for us, but he did spend a couple of days in world war ii on board lexington. most visitors that come here, we would like them to come aboard to learn all the history about it. that is not necessarily the case. many people come on board and go, wow, this is really big. we get people on board that do not care about airplanes. they are engineers. the want to see how the ship ran. th

important for the national defense. >> this building is the headquarters building for the naval air station corpus christiit is 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 naval aviation training here in corpus christi and also in the pensacola area. there's a lot of other bases kingsville meridian, whiting field and sinatra runs naval aviation training for all those bases. they are headquartered here. they are our primary tenants. the purpose of the space is naval aviation training. upon commissioning from numerous sources, student aviators will initially go through pensacola for some 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. the primary training is where they learn how to fly. this is the initial point where they are getting into an aircraft and learning their craft for the first time. upon conclusion of the primary training, they will then based on their grades an

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 sinat

also significant for corpus christi, he got his wings at the naval air station corpus christi. that is another attachment to corpus christi for president herbert walker bush. this airplane he flew. and people know that he got shot down during the course of the war. but also he went down another time due to an oil pressure problem. when he went down that first time, he was rescued and ended up on the lexington for a couple of days, until he could get back to his aircraft carrier, the san jacinto. he came on board and spoke at an event we had. he did not remember too much of his time on board the lexington. he says he does remember what he calls sack time, sleeping a lot on lexington. not very historical for us, but he did spend a couple of days in world war ii on board lexington. most visitors that come here, we would like them to come aboard to learn all the history about it. that is not necessarily the case. many people come on board and go, wow, this is really big. we get people on board that do not care about airplanes. they are engineers. the want to see how the ship ran. th

entry into world war ii and less they built additional naval air stations. corpus christi open with the intent to train pilots. little did they know that they would need to quickly train pilots when pearl harbor happened. the weather is so mild that pilot training can happen year-round. another important thing with building ships, planes, and the things we needed to fight world war ii, the citizens of corpus christi sacrifice what used to be there fire bell to the war effort. they donated it and it was used as a ship bell on the uss houston. the uss houston was commissioned in 1943 and served as part of the pacific fleet she took part in many and it is landings during the battles of world war ii. we hope that visitors to the museum come away with an appreciation for the great trials and tribulations that everyone has gone through. the challenges are of every error and we hope we have shared some of the most inspirational ones that show how we can overcome anything today. >> throughout the weekend american history tv is featuring corpus christi, texas, our city tour staff r

and on american history tv, we'll look at corpus christi texas, and at 2:00 eastern time we'll feature the naval air station in corpus christi which was critical during world war ii. here's a preview. >> paris undefended, fell like a ripe plum into the nazi basket of conquest. >> in france of june of 1940 in europe world war ii, having already begun 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 was well over $100 million. grew bigger and bigger and thus the need for additional auxiliary fields and there would be five of them in training and it became the largest naval air station not just in the united states but in the world. host: hope you turn in on c-span 2's book tv and c-span 3's american history tv and our focus is corpus christi, texas and check out our cities tour @c-span.org/citiestour. patrick taurel is at the american legal council and want to focus on the president action on illegal immigration. thanks for being with us. guest: good morning. host: i want to step back and ask you from your perspective wha

naval air stations. in may 1941, naval station corpus christi open to train pilots. little did they know that only that december they would need to really quickly train pilots when pearl harbor happened. the weather in corpus christi is so mild that pilot turning can happen almost year-round. metal is something that was really important when we were building such big things like ships and planes and all the things we needed to fight world war ii. so the citizens of corpus christi sacrificed what used to be there fire bell which would alert the volunteer fire crew of a fire in town to the war effort. it is the ship bell for the uss houston. the uss houston was commissioned in 1943 and served as part of the pacific fleet. she took heart in many amphibious landings during the battles of world war ii. we help visitors come away with an appreciation of the draws and tribulations that people came through. we share moments -- we share some of the most inspirational ones here. >> throughout the weekend c-span 3 is featuring corpus christi, texas. learn more on c-span's citie

today it is home to the fifth largest port in the united states in the corpus christi naval air station help of our time warner cable partners for the next hour we learn about the city's literary culture local office. we begin with david blanke on the early years of the automobile. >> in the 20th century, 3.2 million americans died as result of automobile accidents. most of my students and most people i know have direct experience with an automobile accident. that's not the same as military service, combat, infection disease, et cetera. it's ubiquitous, and some that question is really lies at the heart of the study. if americans do as i say embrace the automobile culturally, how do they respond when, by the 1920s, and really it was it was until the 19 toys where there was a national human cry over unavoidable or automobile accidents that are killing individuals, and particularly pedestrians who have nothing to do with the freedoms of driving. others were paying liberties of these drivers. when the car was first introduced the rules were very different and the reaction to those rules we