Norman's Navy Years: 1942-1959

Download or read book Norman's Navy Years: 1942-1959 written by Sue Schrems and Vernon Maddux on behalf of the Cleveland County Historical Society and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2016 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1944, A.L. Simon, a sailor at the Norman Naval Air Station, illustrated a booklet, "On the Beach," about Navy life in Norman, Oklahoma. The title he chose reflected the irony of the US Navy establishing two bases in a landlocked prairie town in 1942. The initial activation of the Navy bases (from 1942 to 1945) and their reactivation (from 1952 to 1959) greatly increased the employment rate and economy in Norman, offering locals a much-needed boost after the Great Depression of the 1930s. The men who influenced the Navy to choose Norman as the location for Navy installations were T. Jack Foster, of the Norman Chamber of Commerce; Joseph Brandt, president of the University of Oklahoma; and Savoie Lottinville, director of the University of Oklahoma Press.