Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara

MCAS Santa Barbara Goleta Field
Overhead MCAS Santa Barbara in April 1944
IATA: none ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Military
Location	Santa Barbara, California
Coordinates	34°25′34″N 119°50′25″W / 34.42611°N 119.84028°W / 34.42611; -119.84028
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 4,500 1,372 Asphalt

Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara (MCAS Santa Barbara) was a United States Marine Corps air station that was located in Goleta, California 70 miles (113 km) north of Los Angeles during World War II. Commissioned on December 4, 1942, the air station consisted of an airfield that had been built into the Goleta Slough and served as a training base for numerous squadrons before they deployed to support combat operations in the Pacific Theater. Later in the war, the station would serve as home to Marine squadrons that were trained to operate from aircraft carriers providing close air support for their fellow Marines on the ground. Following the surrender of Japan and the subsequent drawdown of forces that ensued, the air station closed its doors in 1946 and today its property is home to the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport and the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In the early 1930s, an airfield and flight school were established in Goleta, California that would later be named the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport. In 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Authority recommended expanding the airfield in the interest of national defense which led to the city purchasing another 568 acres (2.30 km²) and building another terminal and filling in the Goleta Slough to make way for three runways.

After the outbreak of war, the United States Army Air Corps began to build revetments and station P-40 interceptors at the airfield. The first Marines at Goleta came on June 14, 1942 with the arrival of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and VMSB-243 and VMSB-244. and expanded construction on the base began a month later on May 29, 1942. The field was officially commissioned on December 4, 1942; however, throughout 1942, the threat of a Japanese strike against the West Coast of the United States kept the base on very high alert, especially after the raid against Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. The advanced echelon of Marine Base Defense Aircraft Group 42 arrived in January 1943 and would remain for the duration of the war. Conditions surrounding the base also improved in early 1943 when the local slaughterhouse burned down and the hog farm was abandoned. Two unique conditions that affected the base were that U.S. Route 101 ran through the middle of it and during the course of the war, United Air Lines continued to use the field.