High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale was an airfield of the United States Navy just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1942 the navy selected Merle Fogg Airport in Fort Lauderdale to expand into a naval air station for both pilot and enlisted aircrew training (i.e., gunners, radiomen) in Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers flown by carrier-based US Navy flight crews and by land-based US Marine Corps flight crews ashore. Additional facilities were used to train aircraft maintenance and other ground crew support for the TBF and TBM series aircraft. Among the Avenger pilots who graduated NAS Fort Lauderdale was former President George H. W. Bush, from a class in 1943.