My Dad served a year at Quonset as a Lt, around 1955 in fact he was paymaster there. I grew up a couple miles from Quonset. Remember all the cool planes constantly flying over. In machinist school last year, my instructor (he's 75) had started there in the early-60's working on F8 Crusaders...
After the navy bailed in '73, it sat decaying for a while. But now it is RI's #1 industrial park, plus Electric Boat is expanding to build around 40 new subs. Two huge buildings just went up there at EB.