The US Navy converted two former luxury overnight passenger sidewheel steamers that had served routes between New York and Cleveland and Detroit. The training ships location on the Great Lakes protected them from enemy submarines, and they trained about 17,000 pilots and carrier crewmen. Pilot and carrier crew training was key to US victory in the Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wolverine_(IX-64)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sable

I actually ran across that the other day when I was going down a YouTube rabbit trail. Lots of things I’m finding out about WWII.

Northwest of Chicago, now closed NAS Glenview was a huge training base. This site has lots of airplane & runway pix and mentions the two carriers:

http://www.airfields-freeman.c...icago_N.htm#glenview

When I was heavily into scuba diving, rumor had it that the bottom of Lake Michigan was littered with aircraft lost in carrier training during the war, but too deep to dive on or recover.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
When I was heavily into scuba diving, rumor had it that the bottom of Lake Michigan was littered with aircraft lost in carrier training during the war, but too deep to dive on or recover.

Not a rumor, the Butch O'Hare F4F-3 on display at O'Hare Airport was recovered from Lake Michigan.

https://www.waymarking.com/way...l_Airport_Chicago_IL

I think some of the planes at the Pensacola Museum were also recovered from the lake.

^^^^^
Did not know all that, Sigmund, thanks! I guess 800 feet of depth isn't impossible after all.

I remember seeing an F4F just east of DuPage Airport, probably on Rte 64, in the mid- to late- 1960's and wonder now it that was also a Lake Michigan recovery. It was in somebody's back yard, believe it or not, looking pretty forlorn.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:

I remember seeing an F4F just east of DuPage Airport, probably on Rte 64, in the mid- to late- 1960's and wonder now it that was also a Lake Michigan recovery. It was in somebody's back yard, believe it or not, looking pretty forlorn.

In the 1960s, I imagine nobody bothered to dive that deep to dig up a 20-yr old WWII plane. A lot of warbirds flying now came from post-war govt sales or foreign air forces. IIRC, a bunch of F4U Corsairs came from South/Central America, after some of the Air Forces were done with them. There were fights down there with Air Force Mustangs, Thunderbolts, and Corsairs going at it. I try not to think about that too much, as I LOVE warbirds.

They brought quite a few warbirds up from the depths in recent years. I've seen several in museums. They go to incredible lengths nowadays to restore old warbirds. They even dug a P-38 out from under 300 feet of ice in Greenland and 'restored' it (meaning, they replaced about 90% of the aircraft with brand new components - that is more of a new build than a 'restoration,' IMO).

My father did his carriers quals on them in March 1945 in an F4F Wildcat (was out of NAS Deland, FL for Operational Flight Training). He had to do 8 landings on each one. April 1945 he transferred to Fighter Squadron Twenty (VF20) flying the F6F Hellcat and F8F Bearcat. From there different squadrons and the F4U Corsair and then the F9F5 Panther Jet. Carriers Randolph, Princeton, Valley Forge.

They still occasionally pull aircraft out of Lake Michigan. A Hellcat was recovered in 2009 and a Dauntless SBD-2P pulled from the lake is currently under restoration at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.