Naval Air Station Kingsville, located in Kingsville in south Texas approximately 40 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, serves as one of the Navy’s primary advanced jet aviation training bases — Training Wing One — providing advanced jet training to student naval aviators in T-45 Goshawk aircraft en route to jet aircraft fleet assignments. NAS Kingsville was established in 1942 as a WWII-era training airfield and has served continuously as a training command installation since its establishment. The station’s WWII-era building complex and its role as an aviation maintenance training environment created asbestos exposure pathways for military personnel assigned there.

WWII-Era Building Infrastructure

NAS Kingsville was established in 1942-1943 and its primary building stock reflects WWII military construction:

  • WWII-era training hangars — the aircraft maintenance hangars at NAS Kingsville built in the 1942-1944 period used structural steel with asbestos-containing construction materials including spray-on fireproofing on interior framing and asbestos insulation in hangar mechanical systems. Aviation maintenance personnel and student aviators spending time in these hangars accumulated ambient asbestos exposure from the hangar building structure
  • WWII-era barracks and classroom buildings — the original station training infrastructure built during WWII used asbestos-containing floor tile, ceiling tile, and building mechanical system insulation throughout the 1942-1944 construction
  • Base steam heating — steam heating distribution serving older NAS Kingsville buildings used asbestos-insulated piping in the base heating plant distribution system serving the station

Jet Training Aircraft Maintenance

Aviation maintenance ratings maintaining T-45 Goshawk and predecessor T-2 Buckeye and TA-4 Skyhawk training aircraft at NAS Kingsville:

  • TA-4 Skyhawk and T-2 Buckeye maintenance — older training aircraft types operated at NAS Kingsville before the T-45 transition used asbestos-containing insulation in engine fire zones and cockpit fire protection zones in these 1950s-1960s-designed aircraft
  • Engine access and maintenance — jet engine maintenance on training aircraft in the WWII-era hangars combined potential aircraft asbestos exposure with hangar building structural asbestos

Training Command Student Aviator Occupancy

Student naval aviators cycling through NAS Kingsville for advanced jet training lived in the station’s barracks — WWII-era buildings with asbestos-containing construction — during their training period before receiving fleet assignments.

VA Claims for NAS Kingsville Veterans

VA evaluates asbestos-related disability claims on a case-by-case basis. Veterans generally need evidence of in-service asbestos exposure, a current asbestos-related diagnosis, and a medical link between them. Veterans who served at NAS Kingsville in WWII-era buildings or maintained older jet training aircraft with asbestos-containing construction and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.