Grosse Ile's naval air station trained American and British aviators

The airport at the south end of Grosse Ile still carries its Navy past. Reserve aviation operations began with construction of a seaplane base in 1927. The base was formally dedicated as the U.S. Naval Reserve Aviation Base on September 7, 1929. It did not receive the name U.S. Naval Air Station, Grosse Ile, until December 9, 1942.

During World War II, the township’s master plan says the station became a vital military flight-training center and expanded for large numbers of American and British aviators. The same history says future president George H.W. Bush was stationed here for about two months shortly before the war ended. The careful way to tell that part is that Bush had a brief posting at Grosse Ile, not that he learned to fly here.

The Navy closed the station in September 1969. The federal government transferred the property to Grosse Ile Township on December 3, 1970, and the airfield became Grosse Ile Municipal Airport. The runways are still active, while the township government now works from historic Hangar 1. It is one of those places where the old use did not disappear; it became the bones of the place people use today.