Easy going, freedom loving, historic southern Maryland never will be the same again.

A new naval air station was formally commissioned here at the mouth of the Patuxent River — an event of unusual importance to the Maryland Free State and the Nation’s Capital.

For the big new air base is no mushroom war camp such as those which have sprung up all over the country. It is a permanent establishment that in time will become one of the Navy’s most important aviation stations.

The purpose is twofold. First of all, it will be a great aviation experimental center — the Navy’s counterpart of the Army’s Wright Field at Dayton, Ohio. Second, it will be the East Coast terminal for the vast Naval Air Transport Service, controlling air freight operations for Iceland to Rio de Janeiro.

Change Evident Already

Already the incompleted air base and other Navy activities in the area have radically changed southern Maryland. Large numbers of the descendants of Lord Baltimore’s Catholic settlers have abandoned farming, oystering and commercial fishing — their traditional livelihood — and are working at the several Navy stations in old St. Mary’s County.

A brand new railroad — built by the government — now reaches into the area.

Picturesque Solomon’s Island never again will be the haven for Washington and Baltimore sport fishermen it was for decades, say local leaders. Flanked by a Marine Corps amphibious training base and Navy mine testing station and the new experimental air base here, its fishing boats are busy ferrying workmen across the mouth of the Patuxent. Local leaders believe it is only a matter of time before the government takes over the island too.

High Pay Lures Farm Labor<P> High wages paid to unskilled labor constructing the base here have drawn off most of the farm labor of the section. Many farms have been bought by the government in setting up the three Navy stations at the Patuxent mouth, as well as the new Navy Torpedo Testing Station 15 miles away, at Piney Point, and other naval projects in the area.

Several historic estates, as well as modern summer homes of Washingtonians and Baltimoreans, are encompassed within Navy barbed wire. Beautiful Mattapany — once home of Lord Baltimore and seat of the Maryland colonial government — now is the quarters of the commandant here — Cmdr. W.T. Rassieur.

Carroll House, built in 1654, was moved away, stick by stick, by Henry Ford. A seaplane ramp is expected to go up at the site.

Residents of the area are of two minds about the Navy invasion. Some like the high wages and additional money brought into the county. Others bemoan radical and permanent changes taking place on the individualistic community.

Vital Need Stressed

All of the speakers at the commissioning ceremonies here today took occasion to tell St. Mary’s citizens that the sacrifice of their lands went to meet a vital national need.

‘‘Today marks a step of unusual importance in the history of naval aviation,” declared Rear Admiral John S. McCain, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. ‘‘Our service has commissioned many naval air stations, but never one with possibilities of such far-reaching importance as the Naval Air Station Patuxent River.”

McCain said that now, for the first time, the Navy would be able to combine in ‘‘a single carefully chosen place,” all of its flight-testing and experimental work. Such functions formerly carried out at the naval air stations, Anacostia D.C., Norfolk, Philadelphia and elsewhere will be moved here.

The Naval air chief declared that the Patuxent River station was the ‘‘most needed base” in the Navy today, and predicted that it ‘‘will grow astronomically.”

Good Thing, Sasscer Thinks

Representative Lansdale Sasscer, who also spoke at the ceremonies, told the Post that he believed the construction of the new permanent base would prove to be a good thing ultimately for southern Maryland, despite the present dislocations and feelings.

The station, when complete, will be one of the largest in the United States. It has three runways, one 7,000 feet long and the other two 6,000 feet long. Ten hangars are going up. Seaplane ramps are being completed, as well as docks for freighters bringing in supplies for the naval air transport activities. The reservation covers 6,500 acres and will house thousands of naval officers and men when complete.

Rear Admiral F.L. Reichmuth, commandant of the Potomac River Command, placed the station in commission.