Naval Air Station Grosse Ile

Naval Air Station Grosse Ile was a Naval air station located on the southern tip of Grosse Ile, Michigan. It operated from 1927 until late 1969, and is now a township airport. During World War II NASGI was one of the largest primary flight training stations for Naval aviators, and RAF pilots. Among the many thousands of Navy pilots who began their careers at NASGI were former President George H. W. Bush, and game show host Bob Barker.

Naval Air Station Grosse Ile was commissioned 7 September 1929 as Naval Reserve Air Base Grosse Ile at Grosse Ile, Michigan. Though that was the official beginning, the air station traces its roots back to July 1925 when four US Naval reservists started an aviation unit near Detroit. At first they had no aircraft, and for over a year had to operate using only classroom instruction. The first aircraft assigned to the Detroit Naval Air Reserves was a single Consolidated NY-1, and would remain their sole aircraft for another year. The base at Grosse Ile began with a single tin hangar floated down the Detroit River from the unit's former home near downtown Detroit. By 1927 a large hangar had been built on Olds Bay at the southern tip of the island for use by Navy seaplanes. By 1935 the Navy had acquired all the property formerly owned by The Detroit Aircraft Corporation and a Curtiss-Wright flying school, and had occupied the former Curtiss-Wright hangar, which became the base's primary hangar.

The airship ZMC-2, the Navy's only all-metal airship, was constructed on the site from 1925 to 1929 by the Detroit Aircraft Corporation. The hangar where the airship was constructed measured 120' high, 120' wide and 180' long, and remained the largest structure on the base until it was disassembled in 1960, and its roof reused in the construction of a bowling alley in nearby Trenton, Michigan.

During the depression money was hard to come by, but NRAB Grosse Ile, MI continued to grow, many of its reservist drilling without pay. By the end of 1930 the first Marine unit had been commissioned and based at Grosse Ile.

World War II would come only 30 years after the Navy had acquired its first aircraft and 14 years after naval aviation had come to Grosse Ile, it would face a war that would change the world and base forever. During the war over 5,000 pilots received training at Grosse Ile, mostly Navy cadets, along with over a thousand British RAF pilot trainees. With this rapid expansion the base gained the new designation of Naval Air Station. The primary aircraft stationed at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile during the war years were Consolidated PBY Catalina, Vought F4U Corsairs, Curtiss SB2C Helldivers, and Grumman TBM Avengers. Training was conducted using SNJ, and Boeing Stearman. Immediately following the end of WWII the base was equipped with several squadrons of the huge Martin AM Maulers, and for a short time six McDonnell FH-1 Phantoms, the only jets ever based on the island.

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