Venice Army Air Base

Venice Army Air Base. . The Venice Army Air Base was initially activated as a Service Group Training Center on July 7, 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the U.S. role in World War II. The installation was originally created to train service groups that would deploy to overseas locations to provide maintenance and operations support for air combat units throughout Europe and the Pacific. By the end of the war, nine service groups were processed through the Venice base, including a Chinese-American group later deployed to the China theater of operations. The training center officially became Venice Army Air Field in February 1943 as the primary mission of the base changed to focus on the training of combat fighter pilots for wartime operations. The first fighter pilot training, begun in June 1943, was performed in Bell P-39 Airacobras. As the war evolved, hundreds of new pilots were trained in Curtis-Wright P-40 Warhawks, Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, and finally, in North American P-51 Mustangs. During the war, the base processed more than 20,000 men through the service group and flight training programs. Local residents said that the "skies were filled with airplanes.", After reaching a wartime peak strength of almost 6,000 permanently assigned men and women, the base, under the command of the Third Air Force, was ordered to begin closure in October 1945 and ceased operations by the end of December. The airfield was decommissioned and the federal government granted the City of Venice an airport license for the facilities on May 20, 1946. Later, on June 10, 1947, the federal government issued the initial quit claim deed that turned over airfield property and assets to the City of Venice as the designated sponsor for operating and maintaining the airfield as a municipal airport for the Venice area.