Fighting Bats
“Training to Fight at Night” at Naval Air Station, Vero Beach, Florida, January 1945.
Official U.S. Navy photograph, 80-G-323891, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Starting in 1953 and running for decades, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers trained in Vero Beach, earning the town the moniker of “Dodgertown” and their 110-acre complex was constructed on the grounds where Naval Aviators completed operational training during WWII, with the base dedicated primarily to night fighter training.
In all some 200,000 flight hours were logged at Vero Beach and much of the operations were performed by Navy WAVES and Woman Marines.
Air Control Center at Naval Air Station, Vero Beach, Florida, January 10, 1945. 80-G-323898
The NAS was formed from the nascent Vero Beach Municipal Airport. Note the F6F.
Between 1943 and 1946, the Navy stood up at least 25 night fighter squadrons with the designation “VF(N)” along with at least seven Marine VMF(N) squadrons. Added to this were night attack squadrons– VT(N)– with radar-equipped TBM-3M Avengers.
This was over and above the USAAF’s own sweeping efforts to fight in the dark.
F6F-5N Hellcat night fighters of VMFN-541 on Peleliu Island, 1944.
This led to entire “night carrier” wings such as Night Light Carrier Air Group 41, CVLG(N)-41, which deployed to the Philippines and Okinawa on USS Independence in 1944-46.
This experience made possible the “Heckler” missions of Operations Moonlight Sonata and Insomnia in Korea.
Three F6F-5N Hellcats assigned to the Operational Training Unit at Naval Air Station (NAS) Vero Beach, Florida, pictured in formation during a training flight on December 23, 1944, NNAM photo
Placed in caretaker status in 1946, the abandoned Vero Beach complex would eventually be used, in addition to the Dodgers, in part by Piper Aircraft, and is still a regional airport. At least two WWII-era buildings survive.
