Aransas County Airport developed from the World War II need for additional air training sites for U.S. Navy pilots. In 1942, the Aransas County Commissioners Court offered the Civil Aeronautics Administration the use of county land for an auxiliary military landing field. Voters approved a bond issue and accompanying tax to build the airport, and the county then purchased 700 acres for that purpose. For the duration of the war, the site was leased to the Navy, which practiced landing operations there from its regional air stations at Beeville, Kingsville, and Corpus Christi. Since then, the airport has served both military and public purposes.