![\"300px-Zmc-2_1929\"](\"http:\/\/ss.sites.mtu.edu\/mhugl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/300px-Zmc-2_19291.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe 1930\u2019s our nation may have had trouble growing because of the Great Depression, but somehow the Naval Air Base continued to grow.\u00a0 Many reservists at the base drilled without pay, but the Navy squadrons there doubled in size.\u00a0 In 1931 gliders were introduced into the training program by the nearby Curtiss-Wright Corporation which folded within the year.\u00a0 The Aircraft Development Corporation also had trouble securing contracts during this time and had to close.\u00a0 The commander of the Michigan Naval Reserve saw this as an opportunity to gain more land for the Naval Air base and thus, purchased the Curtiss-Wright land as well as, leased the Aircraft Development Corporation\u2019s land.\u00a0 In 1935 runways, taxiways, and roads were all added.\u00a0 This was around the same time that the Federal Aviation Commission recommended an increase in the Naval Air Force.\u00a0 The Grosse Ile Naval Air base was to be designated as a primary flight training base. This would be the first step for Naval pilots before they were sent on to Pensacola, Florida to complete their training.\u00a0 When January 1941 came around, every one of the reserve squadrons stationed at the base were called into active duty.\u00a0 The training quota increased more than tenfold and by August a hundred cadets from the Royal Air Force arrived and Grosse Ile became a leading training center for the whole of the United Nations, which hadn\u2019t, as of yet, been established.<\/p>\n
Once the United States finally entered World War II, the Grosse Ile Naval Air base saw even more growth.\u00a0 The base expanded to more than twice its previous size, buildings were erected for classrooms, administration offices, simulator rooms and barracks.\u00a0 Three new runways were also put down which are still being used by the Grosse Ile Municipal Airport.\u00a0 They are also quite easily visible from the air as a triangle at the southern end of the island.\u00a0 In the fall of 1942 Grosse Ile was leading the primary training of all the bases in the Naval Reserve.\u00a0 This, among other things such as the quick expansion of the base officially designated the base as U.S. Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan.\u00a0 By the end of 1944 all of the Royal Air Force cadets were transferred from Grosse Ile and over 800 United States Naval cadets took their place.\u00a0 There were many different aircrafts, stationed on Grosse Ile, among them were the PBY Catalina, F4U Corsairs, SB2C Helldivers and the TBM Avengers.\u00a0 Mainly, however, the cadets trained using the T-6 Texan and the and the Boeing Stearman.\u00a0 Immediately following World War II ended, there were even several squadrons of Martin AM Maulers and very briefly, six FH-1 Phantoms which were the only jets to ever be stationed at Grosse Ile.\u00a0 There were major cutbacks being made in the amount of pilots being trained by every Naval base by the end of 1944.\u00a0 The Navy Air Force was not losing as many pilots as they had predicted and no longer needed as many trainees from any base, including the Grosse Ile Naval Air Station.\u00a0 This caused the station, like many others to become deserted relative to their normal hustle and bustle almost overnight.\u00a0 This may have been one of the reasons one of two Marine Corsairs flew right past the Grosse Ile Naval Air Station to the Air Force Selfridge base North of Detroit (Easter, 2010).<\/p>\n
After World War II the station became home to 10 Naval Air Reserve Squadrons and one Marine squadron.\u00a0 The end of World War II also gave way to a new era of aircraft warfare.\u00a0 The jet became the common aerial combat vehicle.\u00a0 One of the downsides to these new jets was that they needed a longer runway to land.\u00a0 The runways at Grosse Ile Naval Air Station could not accommodate the longer landing distance.\u00a0 When it was attempted to elongate the existing runways, the residents of Grosse Ile met these efforts with contempt.\u00a0 This is still not the end of the stations usefulness though.\u00a0 During the 1950\u2019s, the station became the training grounds for anti-submarine warfare and this would continue until the closure of the station.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The new trainees of the station had access to a new group of planes than those used in World War II.\u00a0 The base now had A-1 Skyraiders, S-2 Trackers,P-2 Neptunes, C-119 Flying Boxcars, and C-54 Skymasters.\u00a0 The A-1 Skyraiders and the S-2 Trackers were used by the anti-submarine warfare trainees while the C-119 Flying Boxcars and C-54 Skymasters were used by the Marine Corp Reserve.\u00a0 There were also a group of helicopters stationed at the base in the 1950\u2019s including the HUP Retriever that was later replaced by the larger Sikorsky H-34.\u00a0 These helicopters were mainly used for boater rescue missions on the Detroit River and on Lake Erie as there was no Coast Guard station nearby.\u00a0 There was even, at one point, a C-130 that stopped to update their flight plan on their way to Pensacola.\u00a0 It was a fond memory of Clem St. Louis who almost did not realize that he was not being asked how the weather in Pensacola was as a joke (Louis, 2010).<\/p>\n