Naval Air Station South Weymouth was a U.S. Navy installation from 1942 to 1997. It was established as a blimp base during the Second World War. Later, during the post-war era, NAS South Weymouth hosted a changing variety of regular Navy, Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve units. Originally, NAS South Weymouth had two enormous blimp hangers, one steel-framed and the other almost entirely made of wool. These hangers were among the largest structures in the world at that time. On June 30th, 1949 NAS South Weymouth was closed and re-designated an auxiliary landing facility. The wooden blimp hanger was torn down and three paved runways were built between 1951 and 1953 so the base could take over the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve operations from nearby NAS Squantum, located in Quincy. NAS South Weymouth was reopened as part of the Naval Air Reserve Training Command on December 4th, 1953. All the Navy and Marine Corps reserve units that had been based at NAS Squantum were transferred to NAS South Weymouth. On October 14th, 1954 the name “Shea Field” was transferred from former NAS Squantum to the airfield at NAS South Weymouth to perpetuate the memory of Navy Commander John J. Shea, a local naval officer who was killed in action when the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was sunk off the Solomon Islands by a Japanese submarine on September 15th, 1942. NAS “SOWEY” was primarily a reserve training base after it was reopened, from December 1953 through September 1997. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission of 1993 directed NAS South Weymouth to be closed. The airfield was closed on September 30th, 1996, and the base itself was vacated by the Navy on September 30th, 1997.