Qualla: Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War: Introduction https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point/ Congress approved the money in 1919. Construction began in 1921. The submarine and destroyer base on Tongue Point was finished by 1924. And then nobody came. The military had shrunk after World War I, and the brand-new installation on this rocky peninsula jutting into the Columbia River east of Astoria sat unused - a monument to timing so bad it bordered on comedy. It would take another world war, two decades later, to give Tongue Point a reason to exist. When that war ended, the base found yet another purpose: parking lot for a fleet of ships nobody needed anymore.

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]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/p/y/naval-station-tongue-point-wp/c0py-tongue-point-the-navy-base-that-waited-for-its-war-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War: Built for a War Already Over https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point/ Tongue Point seemed like an obvious choice for a naval installation. The peninsula extends into the Columbia River at a natural narrowing, offering deep water and sheltered anchorage just miles from the Pacific. Congress authorized a submarine and destroyer base there in 1919, ri...

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]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/p/y/naval-station-tongue-point-wp/c0py-tongue-point-the-navy-base-that-waited-for-its-war-built-for-a-war-already-over.mp3 0:06 2 full Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War: Catalinas Over the Columbia https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point/ World War II finally gave Tongue Point its mission. Redesignated as a Naval Air Station in the late 1930s, the base broke ground again in 1939, though construction delays pushed completion to 1943. New hangars and ordnance depots rose on the peninsula, and PBY Catalina seaplanes ...

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]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/p/y/naval-station-tongue-point-wp/c0py-tongue-point-the-navy-base-that-waited-for-its-war-catalinas-over-the-columbia.mp3 0:06 3 full Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War: The Mothball Fleet https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point/ Peace brought a different kind of fleet to Tongue Point. After 1945, the air station shut down, and the base transformed into an anchorage for the National Defense Reserve Fleet - rows of Liberty ships and other wartime vessels tied up gunwale to gunwale, preserved in case anothe...

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]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/p/y/naval-station-tongue-point-wp/c0py-tongue-point-the-navy-base-that-waited-for-its-war-the-mothball-fleet.mp3 0:06 4 full Tongue Point: The Navy Base That Waited for Its War: Reinvention After the Navy https://qualla.com/naval-station-tongue-point/ In 1962, the Navy transferred Tongue Point to the General Services Administration, ending decades of military control. The transformation that followed was unexpected. By 1965, one of the nation's first Job Corps centers opened on the former base, repurposing military barracks an...

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]]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/0/p/y/naval-station-tongue-point-wp/c0py-tongue-point-the-navy-base-that-waited-for-its-war-reinvention-after-the-navy.mp3 0:06 5 full