A flashback is in order. From Johnson County farmland, the Olathe Naval Air Station eventually spanned about 2,000 acres with three runways, 14 secondary fields and eventually 44 buildings to train and accommodate mostly Navy and Marine personnel for almost three decades.

It was a massive complex with three large hangars, including one with a control tower; storage and training facilities; clubs for enlisted personnel and officers; and barracks for Prairie sailors.

ONAS had all the comforts and amenities of a large military base with mess halls, a laundry, a bowling alley, a chapel, a hospital, a cold storage building with free ice, post office and small Post Exchange. The front gate had a small brig and a pass building for visitors to enter the base. Kinnick Hall featured an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The Prairie Navy also included a few notable Americans.

The late John Glenn, future astronaut and U.S. senator, was in the first class to be trained at the base, making his first solo flight in a military training plane.  Stearman yellow two-seater biplanes, nicknamed “yellow perils,” were used to train pilots.

In John Glenn: A Memoir, he mentioned his first days at ONAS, “Walking around on duckboards while the construction crews finished pouring concrete for the sidewalks. …The paint was still drying in the barracks.”

By Nov. 17, 1942, Glenn and the first group of cadets left for advanced training elsewhere. He served in both WWII and the Korean War in a military career from 1941 to 1965, including going into space and then later heading to Washington D.C. and Capitol Hill.

Another notable pilot who trained at ONAS was former TV game show host Bob Barker. He enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1943 to train as a fighter pilot but did not serve on active duty. His military service ended with the war in 1945.

One of the emblems for the “Prairie Navy” was designed by artists from Walt Disney Studios. As a boy, Disney grew up in Kansas City.

Unfortunately, ONAS also had its share of fallen heroes.

On Dec. 8, 1950, Navy Park, also called Naval Air Park, was dedicated to honor 16 Navy and Marine aviators who trained at the military base and were killed in the service of their county during and after WWII. Sixteen streets of the base were named in their honor. The dedication featured then Capt. James Flatley, the eighth commanding officer at ONAS and WWII hero. The base was renamed ONAS (Flatley Field) for him in 1962.

During the Korean War, Navy Reservists were called to active duty for two years from the Prairie Navy, including six months of action aboard the aircraft carrier USS Boxer. A plaque at the park honors five men killed in that war along with three who remain missing in action.

After closing of ONAS, the 16 street signs eventually were relocated to Navy Park. An A-4 Skyhawk and two A-7 Corsair II jets (one with a single seat, the other a two-seater) are displayed at the park.

Since ceasing as a military base in 1970, commercial and industrial buildings and warehouses have replaced many of the military structures at the New Century AirCenter. Only about a dozen buildings/facilities remain from ONAS.

The administration building of the naval air station has become the offices of the Johnson County Airport Commission.

The main hangar with control tower houses the U.S. Army Reserve's Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. A helicopter from the unit was shot down in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011. Thirty American service personnel, including five crew members, were among the 38 casualties. In 2021, the unit’s hangar was named in honor of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bryan J. Nichols, the helicopter pilot.

The base’s water distribution facility along with its back-up facility and ONAS’s public works building are used for the same purposes at the AirCenter.

The small brick brig, located near the Airport Commission offices, was renovated, and privately leased as office space.

A radar tower from the Olathe Air Force Station is leased to KMBZ for its Doppler radar. A small radio shack on five acres south of New Century still exists.

A handful of other storage buildings from the base are privately leased or used by Johnson County Government, including the Sheriff’s Office and Facilities Department.

Barracks and officer quarters, the pass building, front gate, mess halls, training facilities and the hospital are long gone along with the Olympic-sized pool. The old chapel, once a restaurant, was destroyed by fire years ago. The cold storage icehouse, which also served as the railroad depot, also stands but has been abandoned and in disrepair.

The streets at the AirCenter are mostly named after cities in Johnson County. One street honors John Glenn and another will soon honor Bob Barker.

In the years that followed closing the military base, artifacts, pictures, and other memorabilia from the bygone Olathe Naval Air Station were displayed at the New Century AirCenter in a small museum located in one of the few remaining original wooden houses, which previously served as the home for the base's commanding officer. The building became irreparable, and the museum was closed in 1989.

Most of the museum’s materials were sent to the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field, Topeka. Many of the historic documents, papers, pictures, and military keepsakes, once only in storage at Topeka, are now located in the Bair House at the Gardner Historical Museum.

Find more information by calling 913-715-6000 or visiting the Airport Commission webpage.