[1] Its mission was to operate Curtiss H-16 anti-submarine patrols (ASW) to counter German submarine attacks on shipping in the area east of Queenstown.

[5] The location of the station was strategically critical: it lay directly at the southern entrance of the Irish Sea, within 12 miles of Tuskar Lighthouse.

For over four years, Tuskar Rock was one of the most important navigational marks in Irish waters; the area became known as the Graveyard of Ships, due to the many sinkings by enemy submarines within three or four miles and in plain view of the lighthouse.

Enemy submarines also used the Irish Sea as a short cut to and from their bases, and it was a fertile field for their operations; thus the Wexford area was a very busy with ASW activity, both offensive and defensive.

Before the flying boats from this station began operations, submarines were exceptionally bold within the patrol area of Wexford.

The naval air station was located along the Slaney River across from Wexford town;[6] it was well protected from wind, waves and weather due to the almost land-locked harbor.

There had been some work performed by British Admiralty before the US Forces arrived at Wexford;[2] part of the concrete hangar foundations had been laid, the roads were marked off and a portion of them excavated to receive the rock base.

The US naval men spent their first week in a general cleaning up and renovating the Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ), titled the Ely House and Bann Aboo while including the surrounding grounds.

The US Naval Airmen encountered problems as supplies and insufficient clothing (coats and rubber boots) had not yet arrived.

In the meantime, civilian contract labor was working on the road construction, the concrete hangar foundations, aprons and slipway, the drainage systems, reservoir and reserve water tanks.

When the four Curtiss H-16s arrived from Queenstown 18 September 1918, practically all construction work was finished and the station was ready to receive them.

[7] On 11 October 1918, the day after RMS Leinster was sunk in the Irish Sea off Dublin, one of the US planes sighted and bombed an enemy submarine in the area.

[2] Although operations at NAS Wexford ceased after only 8 weeks due to the Armistice, the planes of this station made 98 patrol flights with a total of 312 hours in the air.

Of the two Bachelors Officers Quarters (BOQ), the first, Ely House,[9] and surrounding walls also still stand, but with modifications made for an added facility to support the St John of God Hospital.