My sense of Place Part One

 None of my grand parents are still alive so I can not interview them so I am going to blog about my 46 years of life and what I do know about me and my own sense of place.  I did not write this article,  I found it on line and read it learning a few things that I myself did not know about where I came from.  So I am starting my story with it.

MCAS Cherry Point History

It is said that the name “Cherry Point” comes from a post office established in the area for the Blades Lumber people some years ago. The post office was closed in 1935. The original “Point” was on the south side of the Neuse River east of Hancock Creek, and the word “Cherry” came from cherry trees that at one time grew on the point.
Congress authorized Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on
July 9, 1941, with an initial appropriation of $14,990,000 for construction and clearing of an 8,000-acre tract of swamps,
farms and timberland.
Actual clearing of the site began on Aug. 6, 1941, with extensive drainage and malaria control work. Construction began in November just 17 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cherry Point’s first commanding officer, Lt. Col. Thomas J. Cushman, landed the first plane, a J2F Grumman amphibious biplane, at the air station on March 18, 1942. The air station was commissioned on May 20, 1942, as Cunningham Field, in honor
of the Marine Corp’s first aviator, Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham. In August 1942, one year after land clearing began, the first
Marines arrived.
Cherry Point is one of the world’s largest Marine Corps air stations and one of the best all-weather jet bases in the world. The size of the air station has increased form the original 8,000 acres to more than 13,000 acres at the primary complex, with nearly 16,000 additional acres in associated support locations. In fact, Cherry Point’s runway system is so large that the air station serves as an alternate emergency-landing site for space shuttle launches out of Cape Canaveral, Fla.

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({{Information |Source=[http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/1982/Marines/DM-SC-82-07671.JPEG ID:DMSC8207671] |Author=Service Depicted: Marines</br>Camera Operator: SSGT JOMP |Description=An air-to-air right side view of a Marine EA-6A Intruder aircraft f)