US Naval Air Station Grosse Ile (Hardcover)

In 1927, the US Navy floated a small tin hanger down the Detroit <br>River, planting it on a grass airfield at the southern tip of Grosse Ile, <br>Michigan. This established one of the nation's largest and most important <br>bases for training young officers in the art of flight. Nestled among farms <br>and lavish estates, Naval Air Station Grosse Ile (NAS GI) was home to <br>thousands of Navy officers earning their wings before leaving to fight <br>in World War II . Here their story is told through photographs taken <br>by the airmen who flew and lived there, from its beginnings in 1927 to <br>its decommissioning more than 40 years later. This is the story of men <br>such as Pres. George H.W. Bush, who flew torpedo bombers from NAS <br>GI. And this is the story of the ZMC-2, the Navy's only all-metal blimp, <br>constructed at NAS GI. Finally, this is also the story of the current NAS <br>GI. Spared the fate of many decommissioned bases, today Cessnas, Pipers, <br>and Mooneys rest in the same hangars where Corsairs and Phantoms once <br>prowled. Private pilots take flight and land via NAS GI's unmistakable <br>triangle of runways, and students still earn their wings from the same <br>concrete runways where young airmen trained before heading off to fight <br>the Battles of Midway, Coral Sea, and Leyte Gulf.