The 56-year history of the Alameda Naval Air Station from 1940 to 1997 was a major military presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. As one of the largest and most important naval air stations in the United States, with a population of 45,000, it occupied 300 buildings to service squadrons and Carrier Air Groups. The large Overhaul and Repair facility operated from 1941 through the jet age, and U.S. Naval Reserve squadrons were added in the postwar years.

Alameda was once a peninsula of grassy fields and sandy beaches, separated from Oakland by a snaking estuary. A tidal canal made Alameda an island in 1902 and its waterfront became a major shipping port. Park Street's bay-windowed commercial buildings looked out on a prosperous city of streetcars and comfortable homes. Between the two world wars, Alameda's Neptune Beach resort and amusement park became the “Coney Island of the West,” eventually boasting a Moorish entrance tower on Webster Street, a stadium, two swimming pools, a high dive, and a roller coaster called the “Whoopie.” Alameda's strategic location made its “airdrome” the busiest in the world in the 1930s and eventually attracted a U.S. Coast Guard base, known as Government Island, and the Alameda Naval Air Station.

This supplement to the GAO report analyzing the Pentagon's selection process for base closures and realignments (GAO/NSIAD-93-173, Apr. 1993) contains letters written to GAO by many interested parties, including Members of Congress, local government officials, and private citizens. In some cases, the correspondence and attached materials, such as analyses and evaluations, provided useful leads. In other instances, the materials added support to issues GAO was actively pursuing. Although GAO was unable to follow up on many of the issues because of time constraints, it believes that this correspondence may be useful to the Base Closure Commission as it considers the proposed closures and realignments.