During World War II (WWII), this base provided highly classified airborne electronics maintenance training for many thousands of Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, and Royal Air Force personnel.
[1] In 1924, the Radio Materiel School (RMS) opened on the campus of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC.
The curriculum of the RMS was devoted entirely to the theory and maintenance of radio communication equipment used aboard naval vessels and in shore stations.
Immediately after the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, an ad hoc committee met at the U.S. Navy Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to address the critical problem of electronics maintenance personnel.
Radar, sonar, and other types of electronic systems were being developed, but there were almost no Navy personnel qualified to maintain these advanced technologies.
Under the leadership of William C. Eddy, a medically retired (deafness) submarine officer, a radically new training program was devised and actually started 12 January 1942.
One study found that the average person completing Pre-Radio had 1.5 years of prior college and scored in the top two percent of Intelligence Quotient in the Nation.
The Secondary Schools were totally taught by Navy and Marine personnel, and the time was divided between advanced engineering topics and hands-on hardware laboratories.
Schools at the NRL (an upgrade from the old RMS), at Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, and somewhat later, at Navy Pier in Chicago, were focused on shipboard and shore-based equipment.
With the students having already been filtered in Pre-Radio and Primary, the pass-rate at the Secondary Schools was comparatively high (about 90 percent), and repeat of one section was allowed.
Ward Island, along a causeway two miles to the northeast, was ideally suited for a small training station that could be highly secure and draw on the NASCC for support functions.
Eventually, there were 87 buildings, including a dispensary with 34 beds, a 4,000-volume library, a 350-seat chapel, an even larger auditorium (destroyed by fire in early 1946), a well-stocked ship's store, a gymnasium, and a reception center for visitors.
[6] Originally, NATTC Ward Island was primarily intended for training enlisted U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine personnel in advanced airborne electronics.
Some Navy personnel who had achieved the ART ranking through self-study and apprenticeship (called "striking") were also admitted directly to all, or certain, courses in the advanced curriculum.
The entire operation at Ward Island closed in the early fall of 1947, with the instructional program transferring to NATTC Memphis at Millington, Tennessee; about 10 years later, it relocated to Pensacola, Florida.