Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===World War II=== In 1942, {{convert|2931|acre|km2|1}} of former ranch land were purchased on the eastern shore of Eagle Mountain Lake so the Marine Corps could set up glider operations. Construction of the base began on 24 July 1942. [[Marine Glider Group 71]] (MLG-71) and [[Marine Glider Squadron 711]] (VML-711) under the command of Colonel [[Vernon M. Guymon]] arrived at the base in November 1942 and the station was officially commissioned on 1 December 1942.<ref name="Shettle">{{cite book | last = Shettle Jr. | first = M. L. | author-link = | title = United States Marine Corps Air Stations of World War II | publisher = Schaertel Publishing Co. | year = 2001 | location = Bowersville, Georgia | url = | doi = | isbn = 0-9643388-2-3}}</ref> In May 1943, the Marine Corps cancelled its glider program <ref>{{cite web | last = McKillop | first = Jack | author-link = | title = Piper NLP, Piper NE Grasshopper | publisher = www.microworks.net | date = | url = http://www.microworks.net/pacific/aviation/piper_ne.htm | doi = }}</ref> and on 30 June 1943, the base was redesignated a Naval Air Station.<ref name="Sherrod">*{{cite book | last = Sherrod | first = Robert | author-link = | year = 1952 | chapter = | title = History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofmarinec00sher | url-access = registration | publisher = Combat Forces Press | location = Washington, D.C. | id = }}</ref> The Navy's '''Strategic Tasks Air Group 2''' used the airfield to test newly developed [[Remotely Piloted Vehicle|remote control aircraft]] until 1944 when they were moved to [[Traverse City, Michigan]].<ref name="Freeman"/> On 1 April 1944, the air station reverted to Marine Corps control by the authorization of CNO Dispatch 31TWX1715. The Air Station's next higher echelon command was [[Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base|Commander, Naval Air Bases, Clinton, Oklahoma]]. On 9 April, [[Marine Aircraft Group 33]] (MAG-33) arrived from [[Bogue Field]], [[North Carolina]].<ref name="Sherrod"/> MAG-33 stayed until 17 August 1944, when they left for [[San Diego]], [[California]].<ref name="Sherrod"/> In August, [[Marine Aircraft Group 93]] (MAG-93) arrived from [[Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point]] and remained until November.<ref name="Shettle"/> In December the field became the home of [[Marine Aircraft Group 53]] which was the Marine Corps' first night fighter group.<ref name="Sherrod"/> From then on the base was used primarily for night fighter training. Two common night fighters that operated from the field were the [[Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation|Grumman]] [[F6F Hellcat]] and [[F7F Tigercat]].<ref name="Freeman"/> 28 February 1945 saw the arrival of [[VMF(N)-544]] to MCAS Eagle Mountain Lake<ref name="Sherrod"/> and it was also during this time that the air station reached its maximum utilization with a total of 121 aircraft on board.<ref name="Freeman"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page