--- title: WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan | TIME description: A search team recovers aircraft downed in training missions over Lake Michigan during WWII canonical: https://time.com/video/5xZ5bydF/ og:title: WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan og:description: A search team recovers aircraft downed in training missions over Lake Michigan during WWII og:url: https://time.com/video/5xZ5bydF/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5xZ5bydF/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan twitter:description: A search team recovers aircraft downed in training missions over Lake Michigan during WWII twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5xZ5bydF/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan [Watch (HLS stream): WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5xZ5bydF.m3u8) (6:24)  _Published 2009-08-10. A search team recovers aircraft downed in training missions over Lake Michigan during WWII_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:12 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Chicago Police Rescue a Man and His Dog From Frigid Lake Michigan](/video/NAzglSiy/) ### Chicago Police Rescue a Man and His Dog From Frigid Lake Michigan [Call of Duty WWII Reveal Trailer](/video/CK9tEU4e/) ### Call of Duty WWII Reveal Trailer [WATCH: WWII Mine Detonated in Japan](/video/rgiXwxvp/) ### WATCH: WWII Mine Detonated in Japan --- ## Transcript >> Naval Air Cadet. A thousand miles from the sea. Learn the technique of flying with the fleet. In battle formation, they take off from their floating base of operation on one of America's great lake. >> At the height of the war against Germany and Japan, the United States needs to train thousands of combat pilots. But as the Pacific and Atlantic waters were far too dangerous. The Us Navy had to move their pilot training operations in land. The last stop for pilot certification was aircraft carrier landing on the waters of Lake Michigan. >> We've gone in flights of 4 and then you are required to make 8 successful landings to qualify to go out to a fleet squad. >> Formally, the world's biggest side- wheeled passenger steamer is now the training carrier, Wolverine. Student pilot land and take off from a 550 feet flight deck under conditions identical to those at sea. >> They tried to get a plane landing every 30 seconds. When everything went well, everybody flew right and got out the ship on time and-- you could get rid of 4 pilots and fly their 8 passes in an hour. >> With this rapid fire certification, the Navy carrier qualified nearly 17, 000 American pilots. It was not however an entirely flawless system. >> The number of actual mistakes compared to the number of pilots qualified was just about 17, 000. The number of actual mistakes was a tiny percentage. My understanding of it was that they were a lot smaller than a normal aircraft carrier. The deck was closer to the water and they were shorter and narrower. So, in flying impression it was harder to actually land on one of these then in actual real aircraft carrier. Of course they weren't being shot at, I mean you have to look at, you know, these were 20 year olds and 21, 22 year olds. I wouldn't trust a modern day 21, 22 year old with a remote control of a TV, let alone an airplane. But they were putting these guys, these kids up into these planes and these kids were basically getting into a tin can with a big engine on it. >> That was the 17th of December 1943. I only got 5 landings that day and I crashed in the water. I made a very good take off; I just leveled out with cruising along and suddenly, the engine stops. It barks and then stopped. That's an awful feeling, with that old girl was built like a freight engine. So, a big splash, come back up, floating level and I got out on the wing. The last thing before that thing went under water; I leaped out as far as I could. So, I began paddling as hard as I could and I got to the side of the boat. >> The day after Grant's crash, he completed his 3 additional carrier landings. A week later, he was on route to the Pacific theater where he would win the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor for delivering the final torpedo blow to the Japanese battleship, Yamada. He would spend the next 25 years as a Navy pilot, making his final and 891st carrier landing in 1968. >> I can barely hear it. >> Grant's crash was 1 of more than a hundred crashes during the carrier certification programs. And for the next 40 years, the planes would sit undisturbed at the bottom of the lake. But in the late 80's, Chicago based ANT Recovery began mapping and recovering some of the training planes. >> We kinda took caution to the wind and invested large amounts of money in sonars and robots and just said, we're gonna find these airplanes. It was more of a passion than a business. >> This past April, ANT extracted a plane similar to Grant Youngs. We located this plane in the early 90's and all the other airplanes, either in the early 90's or late 80's. And we know it's an SPD Dauntless Dive Bomber that never sought combat. It was primarily just a training plane for the old time and really doesn't have much history, you know. Just-- but it's a type of airplane that won the battle of Midways. So, and it was a type of airplane used early in the war. So, because it didn't have folding wings, it was hard to maneuver on an actual aircraft carrier. So, so-- and it was considered absolutely another type of Dive Bomber and replaced it so they use it for training out here. So, although this particular airplane doesn't have significant history, the type of airplane did have a lot of significant history. >> Well, Mr. Young's plane still sits at the bottom of the lake; he was on hand to witness the extraction of the SPD Dauntless Dive Bomber. >> I never actually saw them pulling one out, but I was seeing the junk laying there on the ground. I-- it didn't mean anything particular to me; it was a tool, that airplane was a tool of war and they took me out to a boat to see the one I have been flying. This gentleman was there, he comes to me and he said, " Do you remember the number of the airplane you were flying that day ?" Of course I remember. It's kinda graving in my memory and he didn't believe me. He said, " That was 50 years ago, how can you remember that ?" I said, well it was a traumatic experience, I remember. He said, " What was the number ?" I said copy this down 06064 a TBF 1 and he took out his little book and he opened up, he says that's right I know exactly where it is. >> ANT has removed nearly 40 airplanes from the bottom of Lake Michigan. The planes end up in museums and airports all over the country. This plane's final resting place will be at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. >> People in America nowadays, don't realize we almost lost. When we were close to losing, you know. Up until the battle of Midway, I mean there wasn't people doubted whether we could win and then the Japanese weren't about to quit. So, it wasn't-- we didn't have a lot of time to train pilots. So, we have a lot of planes that need to be recovered and they need to be recovered so that the American population can see what the courageous generation went through. >> For Time. com I'm Christopher Booker. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"WWII Aircraft Recovered from Lake Michigan","description":"A search team recovers aircraft downed in training missions over Lake Michigan during WWII","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5xZ5bydF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-08-10T14:59:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5xZ5bydF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/5xZ5bydF/","duration":"PT6M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/5xZ5bydF/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```