Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale

History of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale

NASFL with Squadron of Avengers in flight, celebrating the end of the war, circa 1945.

Aerial view of NASFL with a Squadron of Avengers in mid-flight celebrating the end of the war, 1945. © NASFL Museum.

Serving as one among 257 air stations during World War II,
the NAS Fort Lauderdale made a big impact on the South Florida region,
and the United States as a whole.

The United States did not enter the war until 1941, but Fort Lauderdale felt the effects sooner than most of the rest of the country. In December 1939, a British cruiser chased the German freighter Arauca into Port Everglades, where she remained until the U.S seized her in 1941, prior to Germany declaring war on the United States. The NASFL base was commissioned October 1, 1942 as the Navy needed land based training facilities. With the close proximity of a protected deep-water port, Fort Lauderdale, a resort town of 20,000 people, was an ideal place. The good weather allowed many hours of flying time, the open sea was good for training, and the Everglades provided a natural bombing range as there was no heavy industry or other military targets to draw enemy fire. At the site of the Merle Fogg Field, known now as the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the Naval Air Station was constructed with great speed to aid in the war effort.

Prior to WWII, Fort Lauderdale was a vacation retreat in the midst of economic struggles. By December 1941, the Army Corps of Engineers began transforming an abandoned 9-hole golf course and the Merle Fogg Field into a military base, naming it the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale. The base was initially used for refitting civil airliners for military service before they were ferried across the South Atlantic to Europe and then North Africa. NASFL later became a main training base for Naval aviators and enlisted Naval air-crewmen of the U.S Navy and Marine Corps aboard aircraft carriers and from expeditionary airfields ashore. The location was ideal due to the established port nearby and deep ocean, right off the shore line. In October 1943, the Navy Boat Facility Port Everglades was established as part of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale. This unit was instrumental in providing practical target bombing practice as well as air and sea rescue operations.

The NAS Fort Lauderdale buildings were completed in record time and the training of pilots began. The Naval base was instrumental as thousands of men and women who went off to war received their training here. Training that led to superior action in combat as the radar, gunnery, and parachuting schools rivaled the best in the U.S. Most importantly, was the use of the Naval Air Station as a Specialty School, for training pilots and air crews on the Grumman Avenger TBF/TBM torpedo bomber, which was the largest single engine plane used during the war. The Avenger was the first design to feature a new wing-folding mechanism created by Grumman, intended to maximize storage space on an aircraft carrier. Three of the flight instructors for new pilots included Senior Instructors Lt. David White, Lt. Robert Ford Cox, and Lt. Thomas “Tex” Ellison, the uncle of future Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle.

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The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale was established to train Pilots and Aircrewmen for torpedo-bomber airplanes. The crewmen, in addition to being gunners, were Radiomen, Machinist's Mates and Ordnancemen. A pilot, a radioman and a gunner in an Avenger torpedo plane were the usual crew. The station's main job was to train for aerial combat, but no airplanes would fly, torpedoes and bombs be dropped or machine guns fired if medical, supply, instructional, clerical, cleaning, maintenance, or transportation services were to break down. Efficiency would have suffered without proper food, adequate welfare and recreational facilities. Thus every member of the station's personnel, no matter what the job, was on the same team.

The base included an Administration Building, a Senior BOQ, Junior BOQ, a Ship's Service Building, Theatre, Kitchens, Cafeteria, Service Store, Writing Room and Recreation Hall, Barber Shop, the Sick Bay or Medical Building, Radio Transmitter Building, Control Tower, Brig, Link Trainer Building, Hangar Buildings, Sewage Disposal Plant and barracks for the enlisted personnel. A vast complex of more than 200 buildings of which the majority were built of wood. Local Causeway Lumber Co. supplied most or all of the lumber. Wood floors were cut from the Florida Eastern Pine (which is rare now in South Florida).

The naval base had a two-tier organizational system, with two officers reporting directly to the Commanding Officer. The Executive Officer was in charge of Base Administration, and the Training Officer headed the Operational Training Unit. The Base Administration division consisted of 12 departments: Supply, Executive, Public Works, Ordnance, Gunnery, Personnel, Medical, Communication, Disbursing, Yard, and Physical Training. Port Everglades Navy Boat Facility fell under the scope of Base Administration. Several sub-divisions followed: Safety, Ship's Service, Navy Management Program, Civil Personnel, and War Bonds. The Operational Training Unit consisted of 8 departments: Flight, Engineering, Operations, Ground Training, Gunnery, Aircrew Training, Personnel, and Air Plot Depts.

The station was still under construction when the first 16 student pilots and 17 TBM Avengers arrived at the base. During this time, the Bachelor Officer's Quarters had not been built yet. The junior officers were boarded in local hotels, mostly small family-run establishments in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Upon graduation, many would stay at this base or move onto other military sites. From 1942 to 1944 the base would train 1,686 American and British pilots and thousands more of aircrewmen. At peak utilization in April 1945, less than six months before the war was over, there were over 200 aircraft stationed. At the end of war, The base was decommissioned October 1, 1946, exactly four years after its commissioning.

Broward County played a vital role in the Atlantic, as pilots and their crews sank several German subs. In the Pacific, they helped win many battles including the sinking of the largest battleship in the world: the Yamato, off the coast of Okinawa, as the U.S was getting ready to invade Japan. The Military had to mobilize with speed and urgency, thus the number of casualties at military bases was on the high side. A sad but equally historic note is the fact that 95 young Americans lost their lives at this base during 1942-1945— the three most intensive training years of the war.

Avenger with wings folded. Photo: Allan McElhiney. © NASFL Museum.

In 1942, the City's Chamber of Commerce recognized the need to entertain the servicemen and early efforts to enlist the aid of the USO were unsuccessful. This led to the creation of the Fort Lauderdale Service Men's Center on Las Olas Boulevard. on SE 1st Ave. The large unfinished building was donated by Robert H. Gore, owner of the Fort Lauderdale News. Local businesses and citizens donated all materials and labor to complete what has been described as “the busiest and happiest place in South Florida” and “the most beautiful Service Center in the United States.” This Center served more than 2 million servicemen and women during wartime.The embrace of the community had much to do with Broward County's growth into a major metropolitan area since many of the men married local girls and settled here.

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When the war ended, the base closed its doors and the buildings were all but forgotten. Then, the barracks were used to house Junior High students. The 1958-59 school year was an important one for students who had been attending Rogers Junior High at the Navy barracks on the Naval Air Campus (now the south side Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale International Airport). In that year, the students moved into their new schools. Half the students moved to the new Rogers Junior High that later became Rogers Middle School, while the other students moved into Parkway Junior High School, later named Parkway Middle School.

The Naval Air Campus was not vacant for long. When the Rogers’ students moved into their new schools, Hortt and Harbordale elementary students moved into the barracks on the campus for the 1958-59 school year while their new schools were constructed. Then in 1959, the "Junior College of Broward County" was founded. It opened its doors the following year under the leadership of President Joe B. Rushing, with a with a faculty of 28 serving a class of 701 students. Until the college’s first permanent buildings were completed in 1963, students attended classes in the former Naval Air Station Junior High buildings on the western edge of the Airport. When the schools closed, the once sprawling complex of training centers, barracks, dormitories, a hospital, administrative center, theater and supply warehouses were all shut down. The buildings were a quiet reminder of the major flight training facilities of the1940's. Tucked away from the center of activity, the old base began to deteriorate into a series of dilapidated structures that were virtually unnoticed and unknown to the general public. Then, Broward County assumed control of the property and developed the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. This airport would expand to become one of the premier general aviation airports in the country. Many service members had stayed or returned to the area, spurring an enormous population explosion which dwarfed the 1920's boom.

In 1979, Allan McElhiney, a former WWII sailor, Ben Langley MCB7, Army Coronel Robert Rawls, Chief Stephen Sedillo USCG, and a handful of history enthusiasts and supporters, established the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association (NASFLHA). They started on their mission to convince the county to save at least one of the buildings that was scheduled for demolition. From the large naval base, only one building was preserved: Link Trainer Building #8. The historical association members worked tirelessly to register it to the U.S National Register of Historic Places. They eventually succeeded, and this building became the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum. It is the only military Museum in Broward County. Thanks to the commitment to the cause of preservation by the NASFLHA founders, and the important participation of Broward County Commissioner Lori Nance Parrish, who was able to obtain a $200,000 grant from the U.S Transportation Department (Lori's father, W. A. Nance, Jr., served in the Navy during WWII and had been a survivor when the ship he served on was sunk), a part of history was saved. The museum building was eventually relocated to where it is today on Perimeter Road, next to the airport. The Naval Air Station provided an important catalyst for the growth and economic expansion of South Florida. The Naval Air Museum that followed after its closure, is a testament on the importance of safeguarding our history for generations to come. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yacht and cruise-ship center, one of the nation's biggest tourist destinations, and the heart of a metropolitan division of 1.8 million people. And it is a city that remembers its past.

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Allan McElhiney: One Man's Vision

This Museum began with the vision of one man, who was a sailor in World War II. Nothing in the history of the City of Fort Lauderdale had greater impact in its growth and prosperity than its Naval Air Station, which was established in 1942. After the war, returning veterans created a population explosion in the area that dwarfed the 1920's land boom. This naval base provided an important catalyst for the growth and economic expansion of South Florida. Recognizing this fact, the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association can be traced to one man: Allan McElhiney who devoted much of his life to preserve a part of its history. When the war ended, the base closed its doors and the buildings were all but forgotten. Progress was about to eradicate the past to make way for a new Airport, but thanks to the long fight of a visionary man who saw the significance of safeguarding a bygone era, a Naval Museum was established.

With more than 100 vintage images from the WWII Period. This book is the inspirational story of one man who's commitment to the cause of preservation has encouraged many to look into our past, to safeguard our future.

The book is available in Softcover for $16.99 and Hardcover for $24.99 from Lulu Press and it's now available at AMAZON. You can also order it from your local bookstore. All proceeds from this book will go directly to the Museum, a Non-Profit Organization.