Courtesy Of John Voss

Historical Information

"NAAS Rodd" was still depicted as an active airfield on the 1949 Corpus Christi Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy), and was described as having a 5,100' hard-surface runway. Rodd Field was closed at some point after 1949, and was declared excess in 1958.

The General Services Administration sold portions of the property to several private parties in 1960. GSA transferred 136 acres of the northern portion of the base to NASA in 1964, which established the Texas Manned Space Flight Network Tracking Station at the site.

The Texas MSFN Tracking Station opened in 1967, and was operated by the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation.The station's administrative offices were located in one of the former Navy hangars, referred to as the main operations building. In addition to the administration offices, the hangar housed telemetry systems, command system, computers, and other communications equipment.

Located about one mile south of the hangar was the VHF Acquisition Aid equipment.The Unified S-Band system & power generating equipment were located a half mile north of the hangar. During the Apollo Program, this Texas station acted as a remote station, remoting telemetry data, tracking information, and voice communications to MCCH in Houston.

The station also acted as an uplink facility between the lunar vehicles & the MCCH Control Center.By the time of the July 1969 Brownsville Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy), the airfield at Rodd was no longer depicted at all.

The NASA facility was closed by 1974, at which point their property was transferred back to GSA, and subsequently conveyed in 1980 to the City of Corpus Christi, which built Bill Witt Park. The park still exists today on that part of the property. A visit to the site in 2001 by Jeffery Sternberg provided an update of the status of Rodd. Most of the ramp area also still exists, as well as one of the three hangars (which is in an advanced state of deterioration).The street grid & a number of small concrete buildings still exists.

Most of the runways have been removed, with the exception of an 800' segment of the east/west runway (visible as a white line in the above aerial photo, north of the baseball diamonds), which is currently used as a parking lot for the baseball fields.

Haunting Information

It is said to be haunted by the spirit of a military man that hung himself from the rafters of the hangar . And of a young girl that fell to her death from the catwalk.The man has been seen looking out, of the now broken windows of the old hangar.

CCPG ADVISES AGAINST ANYONE GOING INTO THIS BUILDING . IT IS VERY DILAPITATED AND COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS.

Some Of the Photos Courtesy Of Jason Grant - Archives