THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Spring 2019 27 TheCoastalBend.com Whatever happened to Naval Station Ingleside? THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Spring 2019 27 TheCoastalBend.com The biggest news story in South Texas for much of the late 1980’s was“Homeport” and the legislative campaign to win a U.S. Naval station on the northern side of Corpus Christi Bay in Ingleside. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz led the celebration in 1987 when funding for Naval Station Ingleside was approved by Congress. The facility was originally designed to accommodate a naval battle group that included then- training carrier U.S.S. Lexington and the storied battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin. By the time the facility was operational in 1992, however, the decision had been made to decommission both war- ships, and the base was reassigned a mine warfare training fleet. In 2005 the BRACC commission voted to close Naval Station In- gleside and it was turned over to the Port of Corpus Christi in 2010. The facility was eventually sold to Occidental Petroleum for $90 million, which is now exporting record volumes of Texas crude oil to world markets—and expanding. Welcome ceremony for amphibious assault vessel USS Inchon, which was decommissioned after fire damage in 2002. Avenger class mine countermeasures ships lined up at Naval Station Ingleside in 2005. Former warship facilities retooled by Occidental Petroleum to export millions of barrels of Texas crude oil. Mega-tanker Anne making a ceremonial dry dock at Oxy (2017)