This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Anna Culpepper, LCDR
to remember
Culpepper Jr, William "Bill", PO1.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Date of Passing Feb 16, 2007
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Bill was born on June 28, 1945, in Pine Bluff, Ark., to William C. Culpepper Sr. and Marguerite Culpepper. Bill was an R.N. and held a B.S. in Health Care Management from the University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif., a B.S. in Health Sciences from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a Master of Health Administration from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and certified Home Care Executive.
Mr. Culpepper served in the United States Navy from 1963 until about 1988, serving as a Hospital Corpsman including two years on board the USS Rentz in the Medical Clinic. While in the Navy he earned the National Defense Service Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Navy Unit Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and two Good Conduct Medals.
Bill spent over 20 years in the health care industry and was employed by East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System in Tyler as the corporate director of Home Services.
Other Comments:
This profile is posted in order to reach out to my father's shipmates. I would appreciate any stories or memories from those sailors that served with him over the years. Since I grew up with my mother, the details of his Navy career aren't as clear as I would like. So, if you know any more details about his tours and campaigns, I would appreciate your assistance.
1968-1970, HM-8482, Naval Hospital Corpus Christi, TX
NAVAL AIR STATION, CORPUS CHRISTI. The Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, also known as the University of the Air, began on June 13, 1940, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a $25,000,000 appropriations proposal. Construction began on June 30 of that year, and the base was dedicated by the secretary of the navy on March 12, 1941. It had the main station at Flour Bluff and six auxiliary stations: Rodd, Cabaniss, Cuddihy, and Waldron at Corpus Christi, Kingsville Naval Auxiliary Field at Kingsville (see NAVAL AIR STATION, KINGSVILLE), and Chase Field at Beeville (see NAVAL AIR STATION, BEEVILLE). The total station covered some 20,000 acres in three counties. The originally contracted construction was virtually complete by June 30, 1941. By 1945, 997 hangers and other buildings had been constructed, and the cost had run to more than $100 million. A 980-foot rail-highway bridge and a 400-foot trestle bridge across Oso Bay had been built; a twenty-mile-long railroad was built in thirty-five days. A sixteen-inch cast iron water pipe was laid from Corpus Christi to Flour Bluff. Eight miles of 100 pair telephone cables for a permanent telephone system were laid in ten days. Also constructed was a permanent military highway consisting of eleven miles of twenty-two-foot concrete pavement with a 1,200-foot concrete bridge across Oso Bay, as well as a 4½-mile-long concrete access road to Cabaniss Field. On January 14, 1941, the project reached a peak employment of 9,348 employees and had a weekly payroll of $305,125.
The station was initially used to train aviation cadets as pilots, navigators, aerologists, gunners, and radio operators. By 1950 the Naval Air Station was training naval aviators in the advanced stages of flying multiengine land and sea planes. In addition, the United States Naval Hospital, the United States Naval School of All-Weather Flight, the Fleet Logistic Air Wing, Acceptance, Test, and Transfer Unit, and the headquarters for the Corpus Christi Naval Reserve Training Center were operating at the Naval Air Station. The end of World War II greatly curtailed the activities at the Naval Air Station. The naval air stations at both Kingsville and Beeville were deactivated for several years. By late 1948 the Naval Air Advanced Training Command had transferred to Corpus Christi from Jacksonville, Florida, and the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi became a permanent installation. The Navy's precision flight team, the Blue Angels, made their headquarters at Corpus Christi in 1949 and remained there until 1955, when they moved to Pensacola, Florida. In 1959 the Navy shut down a major repair and assembly facility, which had employed the majority of the 4,000 civilians at the base. In 1961 the facility was converted into the Army Aeronautical Depot Maintenance Center. From the 1960s into the 1990s the Naval Air Station continued to provide fully trained naval aviators of multiengine land and sea planes; its students included many from foreign countries. On August 6, 1986, the station's airfield was named Truax Field in honor of Lt. Myron Milton Truax, United States Navy. In the 1990s the station continued to maintain and operate facilities to support operations designated by the chief of naval operations. In 1990 there were three training squadrons operating aircraft from the station.
