THE  MILITARY BEAT by Billy R. Greene N. A. S. TWIN CITIES Unlike the Army installations, which for the most part, are named after noted Army personnel, the Naval installations are usually named for the towns or cities which they are located in or near. In the case at hand, NAS (Naval Air Station) Minneapolis (Minnesota). With its location being 1200 miles from any ocean and considering the harsh Minnesota winters, one wonders why such an unlikely place would ever of been considered or associated with Naval Aviation. Indeed such an association was started during WW I when Naval Aviation ground training was conducted by Dunwoody Institute, an industrial trade school which trained 5,000 naval personnel between 1917 and 1919 - in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Following WW I the local aero club and the National Guard joined to develop an airport and in 1920 began development of a defunct auto race track between Minneapolis and St. Paul into the new airport. It was named Speedway Field. In 1923 it was renamed Wold-Chamberlain in memory of the first two aviators from the area to be killed in WW I. In 1925 Naval Aviation was returned to Minneapolis when 35 student pilots trained at the Naval Armory - in 1928, a 80 x 90 ft. hangar was built and leased to the Navy for $1.00 per year. Commissioned October 1st 1928, this was known as Naval Reserve Base, Minneapolis. The base continued to grow and elimination training was started in 1935 with the installing of the first hard surfaced runways. Full primary training was started in 1941 and among notables to receive this training here  was former President, George Bush from November 1942 until Feb. 1943. Operations at Minneapolis peaked in 1944 when some 3,579 personnel and 928 Cadets were in training. Primary training ceased towards the end of 1944 and the station served as a point of entry for helldiver planes built in Fort Williams, Ont. Canada. For the remainder of WW II, Minneapolis was transferred to the Naval Air Technical Training Command and conducted training for PB4Y patrol service units. Following WW II Minneapolis became a Naval and Marine Air Reserve Station and in 1963 it was renamed N A S Twin Cities, namesake of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. N A S Twin Cities was closed in July 1970 but a reserve detachment from Glenview remained for a few more years. There is little or no activity at N A S Twin Cities today. Plate shown above, from the TNS Editors collection is yellow on dark blue and measures 5" x 8" crisply embossed and very well made.