A concise history of the NAS Fort Lauderdale!
Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale: A Catalyst for Growth
Booklet by Minerva Bloom

With vintage B&W images. Experience History! A concise reference for history enthusiasts! 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.

Thousands of men and women who went off to war received their training at NASFL. The radar, gunnery, and parachuting schools rivaled the best in the U.S. Most importantly, was the use of the base 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 Naval Air Station found its fame with the disappearance of Flight 19 - The Lost Patrol, which flew out of the base on December 5th, 1945 to vanish into the Bermuda Triangle. To this date, Flight 19 remains one of the great aviation mysteries. Also in the summer of 1943, a 19 year old future US President George H.W. Bush lived at the base as a young Ensign to train as a torpedo/bomber pilot. All proceeds from this book go to the NASFL Museum, a non-profit organization.

Price: $8.99

44 Pages
Square Softcover Booklet
ISBN: 9781304076465
Dimensions (inches): 7.5 wide × 7.5 tall

September - October 2011 Issue
You can view directly, or you can download the PDF file.
Click here to View

Francis “Frank” Frezza is a native of New York. He arrived at NAS Fort Lauderdale in 1943, and was initially assigned duty cleaning the cook's barracks. Frank was an easygoing fellow and made lots of friends quickly. While at the base, he met Joe Chefitz, a professional civilian photographer. Joe arranged for Frank to get assigned to the photo unit where he worked. Together, they recorded life on the base with their photography. They would also accompany pilots on their training missions. Many of their photographs were used for brochures and for training. Frank's experience grew with each mission.

In 1944, his friend Joe was assigned to take professional photos of NASFL's Captain Pratt in his uniform. Some time later that year, Captain Pratt, Joe, and Frank were transferred to Hawaii. Captain Pratt went on to command a small carrier, which on an unfortunate mission was hit and sunk, however he was able to survive. Joe who had swapped places from another carrier, went down with the ship. Meanwhile in NAS Honolulu, Frank worked at Admiral Chester W. Nimitz' Office, and continued learning all he could about photography, in a way, to honor his friend Joe. Then he was selected to be a part of the JICPOA (Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Area), or better known as the “Silver's Gang”— a group of about 180 Navy photographers that became instrumental for reconnaissance. They worked tirelessly, and in 3 months they would have between them 2 ½ million pictures. Their missions included taking aerials, beach charts, moon charts, tide charts, and they would also come to photograph island invasions in the pacific theater, including Iwo-Jima. On the final days of the war, they recorded in images, the site of the atomic bombs—two days after they were dropped. On their down time, they would focus on photographing life on the base, as more and more women joined the service, and their contributions to the success of the war had to be recorded. Frank also took pictures of several celebrities visiting the Honolulu base in support of the troops.

After the war, Frank decided to become a Detective Photographer for the New York Police Department. He retired in 1971 after 23 years on the force and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he became a businessman. He'll be 88 yrs old this year. He's semi-retired now and lives with his wife Maria, who are both avid hunters and fishermen. Frank has donated a large cache of photographs which are on display at our Museum. Below, is a small sampler of the many images Frank took during his time in the service.

We received several e-mails and a great visit to the Museum, from NASFL Communications Officer William J. Hopwood. It was an honor and a pleasure to see him again and to learn more about life at NASFL during WWII. The following are passages of his e-mails to Allan McElhiney, President of the NASFL Museum:

Monday, June 27:
"I am a long time member of the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Historical Association and was Communications Officer at NAS Fort Lauderdale when it opened in 1942, and until 1944. I was at one of the NASFLHA lunches on Jan 5, 1996 when I delivered a short speech about what the NAS was like in those wartime years and brought some official Navy photographs I had acquired, at least one of which I remember was on display at the luncheon.  It was a photo of Captain Pratt holding an early AM inspection of NAS officers and this photo was of a small group of us from the administrative staff and I was one of them in the photo.  I don't remember all the names but think I may have written some of them on the back of the photo.  As one of those who was at NASFL during the war, I know I speak for all of us who were there then to say how much we appreciate what Al McElhiney and all of you great volunteers have done to preserve the history of NAS Fort Lauderdale. It played a very active part in our national heritage and thanks to you folks it will not be forgotten. Many thanks, William J. (Bill) Hopwood, CDR USNR (Ret.)"

Tuesday, June 28:
Commander Hopwood remembers:

• "The first C.O. was Commander (later Captain) Donald E. Wilcox who was transferred out around late 1943.  At the time I arrived in October of 1942, the Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) were not ready and they put us up in a small Hotel on Andrews Ave. which was owned by a man and wife who were Free French refugees.  We used to sit around the lobby at night and listen to the Free French short wave broadcasts from Radio Brazzavile in French Equatorial Africa.
  
  
• Commander Wilcox was relieved as C.O by Captain Pratt. Commander Joe Taylor was, I believe, the first Operations Officer and he was in charge of flight training. Lt. Marshall Myler started the first station newspaper, The Avenger, and after the war I knew him in Miami where he ran an advertising/public relations business.  Joe Stiret was Personnel Officer. Major Prine (USMC) was in charge of the Marine Detachment. Lt Burton Wheeler (I forget his title) ran the Payroll department. More of the names come back to me when I think hard enough. Those were busy days. 
  
  
• The student aviators came and went, so I didn't know many of them but I got to know a number of the flight instructors, some of whom had just come from the early days of the Pacific war and had had first-hand combat experience. CDR Joe Taylor was one who later went back to the Pacific and was, I believe, one of those who was on the carrier Franklin when she was set on fire and badly damaged by the Japanese late in the war. I think I was still there when former President George H.W. Bush went through training and I may have seen or met him but he was just another student then and nobody would have dreamed they were talking with someone who would later be President of the U.S.
  
  
• NAS Fort Lauderdale Central Office Xmas Party - 1943 Photograph: I can remember a few names of those in the (group) photo and will try to identify those I remember, by location as best I can."
  
  Sitting, front row:
  2nd from left, Lt. John Rogers, aide to C.O.
  3rd from left, Capt. J.L. Pratt, C.O.
  6th from left, Dolores Frame, clerical dept.
  Kneeling, second row:
  Far right, Mary Bond, clerical and teletype operator, Communications Dept.
  Standing, 3rd row:
  2nd from left, Joe Steiert, Personnel Officer
  3rd from left, Lt. Stoddard (with black tie).
  Standing, 4th row:
  With head framed in middle doorway, Lt(jg) Edward Talbott, Communications.
  Tall man with head touching hanging decoration, Lt. CDR Mac Tharp, Executive Ofcr.
  Next to Lt. CDR Tharp (cheek to cheek) Ens. Knolyn Hatch and Lt. William Hopwood, Communications.
  

Sunday, July 10:
"Hi Allan:  Thanks so much for your nice message. I want to thank you and your team for welcoming me and my friends last Saturday. We had a wonderful time. Seeing the museum really made my day, my month, my year. You folks have done such  a great job. I really marvel at how you and your team of volunteers have managed to do  everything you have to keep the history of NAS alive. I guess you and I can both say that  WWII was the high point of our lives, and to visit the Museum and see all that you folks have  accomplished made me feel young again.  I hope many more who served at NAS during the war will have the same opportunity to visit as I did. I'm sure they will feel the same. 

I want to particularly thank Dr. Bloom for showing me around as thoroughly as he did. And thanks also to the Commander who was there (Karl Bork, naval aviator who served in Vietnam), for their time and for encouraging the young man who was with me to pursue his dream of  being a Naval Aviator. In doing so he was also helping the lady who drove me up from Miami (the young man's mother) to feel more at ease about the possibility of her son having a military flying  career. Allan, it was wonderful to see you again after 15 years, and also to meet your daughter. And I want  to express especial appreciation to you for giving me the copy of that fine book Dr. and Mrs. Bloom wrote about how you started the historical association and over the years have created what has  become such a tribute to everybody who had anything to do with NAS Fort Lauderdale in WWII.

Without your efforts I believe NAS would probably have long-ago been relegated to the dust-bin of history. But the accomplishments of you and your team has not let that happen.  Now the museum will be a major part of the history of South Florida for the foreseeable future. That's really good  news. Thanks again for a wonderful visit."

Bill Hopwood

We want to share these photographs that show some of the servicemen at the NAS Fort Lauderdale base during WWII. They were sent to us by Jennifer, grand-daughter of Seymour Baumgartner, who was stationed at this naval base working as an aircraft mechanic. He was at NASFL for two years from 1944 to 1945. Thanks for sharing your memories Jennifer and Seymour and also thanks to Mary  (Seymour's daughter), for helping us with the image captions! We are proud to honor your service, as it is important for our generation and the ones following-- that we do not forget. We hope you can visit someday! We are sure your grandfather will enjoy himself reminiscing about that period in his life, as we have lots of WWII memorabilia for display at the Museum.

- Click on thumbnails to enlarge -

Jim Hood contacted us and wanted to share his memories of the High school at NASFL:

"During the 50's the influx of new residents forced the retired-NAS to be converted into a public school. If you lived in the area - I lived near Oakland Park Blvd and North Ocean Drive. (In fact I was the paper boy for North Beach) I had to travel to the Gateway area to be transported on to NAS Junior High. Over the years I have met a number of Lauderdale folks who lived back there in that era. Few, if any, remember Naval Air as a school. It was particular in that there was no heat and in those days A/C.  We had frequent cold days.  We all went into the library and stood shoulder to shoulder next to a fire burning stove. Thinking back on cold days, and cancelling school was a hoot.  Imagine cold days in South Florida! Having to travel round trip from North Ocean Blvd and Oakland Park Blvd was a real pain in those days too.  Down A1A to Sunrise to Federal Hwy, across the old bridge which was usually open (no tunnel in those days).  Over to a new school; Strannahan HS, then, finally to NASJH."

Thank you Jim, for sharing your experience! Hope to see you someday!

We got an e-mail from Mr. Ralph Flaherty who remembers the gunner of FT-36 Flight 19, Sergeant Howell ("Whitey") Thompson.

"Just came across this site. I am now 84 and remember my days at NAS FT Lauderdale. I joined the navy at age 17 in 1944 as an aircrewman. after AOM school in Norman OK. I went to gunnery school at the Emory Riddle bldg on 27th Ave in Miami. It was there that I met "Whitey" (Howell) Thompson a marine who had just come back from the fleet. He and the rest of the marine group were there for a refresher course. Anyhow we finished gunnery school in August 1945, just as the war had ended. We were in the last course to go through operational training at the base in Ft. Lauderdale.

On the day that Whitey was lost on Flight 19, I had just come back from a morning flight and Whitey was getting on line to wait for his flight. I remember it well:  it was a very lousy day, real bumpy, and the reason I was still at the plane when Whitey arrived, is that I had thrown up right behind the pilot where I was standing during the flight. I remember a very angry pilot who ordered me to clean up the mess and make sure there was no smell when he got back. Obviously, I got out of there, so I did not have to go on the next flight with him. So much for my story.

I was probably the last one to talk to him before they left.  The next morning after the disappearance of Flight 19,  I was on the first search flight out of Fort Lauderdale.  I just want to end by saying we were all just kids and though Whitey was the only one of the marine group that I knew, he was really quite a guy. Although he did not talk about the war I heard from others that he was on the USS Franklin when she got hit and he was trapped for 4hrs below deck while she was burning. I can't verify that fact, but that's what I remember."

We want to hear from you! If you would like to share, please send us your story, your memories, or pictures. We will include them in our Blog as well as in both our print and e-mail "The Avenger" Newsletters.

We got an e-mail from Jose Hurtado, Ph.D:
"I think NAS Fort Lauderdale Museum is a very important an interesting place in Fort Lauderdale and I want to congratulate its founder, Mr. Alan McEhiney and the Historic Association people for such excelent work!

However I'd also like to add a comment in order to complement this historical achievement:
It is correct to say that the Naval facilities were abandoned in 1946, after World War II, but 10 years later Col.(R)Robert "Bob" Young and his wife with some retired army officers founded a military High school named "Florida Military Academy", which occupied the naval facilities for more than 10 years (...or more), probably from 1950 to 1963...
I know about this situation because I was a student at that school between 1956 and 1959, and remember to have lived and attended classes in those old barracks for almost three years, whose pictures Mr. Mchiney shows some of them in his excellent book.."

As we're slowly going through our warehouse at the Airport where we have in storage many boxes and containers of memorabilia, we came about a container with parts of a WWII Avenger's wreckage that was discovered in the Everglades grassland. In 1989, Allan McElhiney and Frank Hill were brought deep into the Everglades to investigate a TBM Avenger crash site which was revealed from the grass after a fire. They thought that perhaps it was part of the Flight 19 squadron. It was determined it was not, as the serial numbers on a visible plate didn't match. However, it was a plane from the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale (NASFL). The parts from this wreckage will be on exhibit at the NASFL Museum.

Created by Minerva Bloom for the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum.

Sun-Sentinel Newspaper
NAS Fort Lauderdale during WWII

January 15, 2011
By Jonathan D. Marcus
Forum Publishing Group

An exhibit chronicling the local impact of World War II is on display at the Broward County Historical Commission and Museum in Fort Lauderdale. "The Broward County Goes to War" exhibit in the museum's gallery depicts the economic, social and demographic changes during the war years of 1941-1945, and shortly thereafter. "The war put Broward County on the map. It forever changed it," said historical commission and museum curator Denyse Cunningham.

The gallery features display panels with graphics, diagrams, photographs and display cases with uniforms, artifacts and memorabilia. Accompanying text provides details and background information. Panels describe the military training that occurred in the area. Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, located where Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is now, was a training base for bomber pilots, and other naval schools also operated in Fort Lauderdale.

"Broward County was the perfect place for training because it was so flat and the weather was good all year long," Cunningham said. Local beach areas were restricted to military personnel, and blackouts at night were often called so that the German submarines that commonly patrolled offshore in the early years of the war would have difficulty seeing land, she said. A display case shows ration books and tickets, "The Victory Cook Book," which describes how to substitute for rationed foods, and the small bulbs that could be used during blackouts.

"It was a time of sacrifice," said Fort Lauderdale resident Allan McElhiney, who served aboard the USS Asheville during 1944-45 while it was at Port Everglades. "People all over the county were involved in the war. Some people were coming into downtown Fort Lauderdale on horse-drawn wagons because of the gas rationing." Other panels discuss area industries prominent during the war, such as agriculture and marine businesses, and document how the local economy boomed after the war's conclusion.

"The very first season after the war … ended up to be the biggest season that Broward County had had up until that time," said county historian Helen Landers. Hundreds of former service members who had been stationed here, like McElhiney, became county residents, and they were a key to later growth, Cunningham said. "It has so much to do with our growth and prosperity, more than anything probably," said John Bloom, a Fort Lauderdale physician who co-wrote a recent book with his wife Minerva about McElhiney. McElhiney moved to the area permanently in 1953 and helped found the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum in 1980.

"I fell in love with Fort Lauderdale because of the nice weather. The people are friendly down here, and I just enjoyed being here," he said. Historical commission and museum staff created the exhibit from their own collections, and the Boca Raton Historical Society, the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, the Hollywood Historical Society, and the Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum also contributed materials or research.

"We see our agency as an umbrella that brings together the various area historical societies," Cunningham said.

To see the article online visit the Sun-Sentinel

Broward County Goes to War Exhibit
at the Broward County Historical Commission
From January to May 2011

During the next 5 months, please visit the Broward County Historical Commission at the very West End of Las Olas Blvd. (301 SW 13th Ave), to see how Broward geared up to help win World War II. A story of the Exhibit will appear on the Sun-Sentinel on Sunday the 16th. The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale from 1942 to 1945 is featured.
Visit their Website: Historical Commission and Museum

301 S.W. 13th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
Phone: 954-357-5553
FAX: 954-357-5522