b'continued from page 53 History ofLakehurst: Because of the BRAC recommendations of 1988, Fort Dix again ended its active Army training mission and became aU.S. Navymajor center for the training, mobilization, deployment, and demobilization of reserve component forces. Fort Dix maintained its training facilities for numerous Previously known as Naval Air Station Lakehurst, themilitary occupational specialties within the combat arms,installation is most famous as the site of the Hindenburg combat support and combat service support branches.disaster on May 6, 1937. Despite the notoriety andAs a mobilization and deployment center, the installationwell-documented nature of this incident, today there is awas a replacement center for soldiers taking part in Operationsimple memorial that denotes the location of the crash atRestore Hope in Somalia, deploying troops for the Bosniathen-NAS Lakehurst in the field behind the large airshipPeace missions and resettling over 4,025 Kosovo refugeeshangars on base. A ground marker, painted black, and fleeing their war torn country. In the post 9-11 world, Fort rimmed by a bright yellow painted chain, locates where the Dix continued its mobilization, training, deployment, andgondola of the German zeppelin Hindenburg hit the ground.demobilization of soldiers for the various operations in thePrior to this event, NAS Lakehurst was the center of airship Global War on Terrorism. development in the United States and housed three of the On September 30, 2009, Col. Patrick Slowey fired U.S. Navys four rigid airships, (ZR-1) Shenandoah, (ZR-3) the salute gun and members of the garrison staff lowered theLos Angeles, and (ZRS-4) Akron. A number of the airship U.S. flag for the last time during the final Fort Dix hangars built to berth these ships still survive. Hangar One, retreat ceremony. The following day, on October 1, the BRACin which the Shenandoah was built, held the record for the recommendations were realized and Fort Dix largest single room in the world. According to an article in entered a new phase in its nearly century-old history as itthe January 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine, transformed into the United States Army Support Activity, the airship hangar could house three Woolworth Buildings Fort Dix(USASA, Fort Dix) and became part of Joint Base lying side by side.McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.J Maxfield Field was named January 6, 1944, in honor of Commander Louis H. Maxfield, Naval Aviator No. 17, who lost his life in the R-38/USN ZR-2 airship crash, August 24 1921, at Hull, England.The base housed many Navy non-rigid airships, otherwise knowns as blimps, in several squadrons before, during and after World War II. This included the U.S. Navys ZPG-3W (EZ-1C), which was deactivated in September 1962. In 2006, after a 44-year hiatus, the U.S. Navy resumed airship operations at Lakehurst with the MZ-3A.The former NAS Lakehurst also hosted the U.S. Navys first helicopter squadrons, HU-1 (later HC-1) and HU-2 (later HC-2); the A and C enlisted training schools for the Aerographers Mate (AG), Aviation Boatswain Mate (AB, ABE, ABF, ABH), Camp Dix, Infantry and Parachute Rigger/Aircrew Survival Equipment man (PR) Drill, December 1916 ratings until their transfer to other Naval Air Technical Training Centers; and an Overhaul & Repair (O&R) facility for fixed-wingPhoto courtesy Wikipedia aircraft, the forerunner of the former Naval Air Rework 54 Power In The Pines 2023 JBMDLAir and Space Open House'