In the latter stages of World War II, the U.S. Army Air Force (AAF) established a training program at Point Clear, Baldwin County, on Mobile Bay to prepare its service members for life at sea. The program was based at the Grand Hotel and lasted from August 1944 until the end of the year, training more than 5,000 airmen-sailors in groups of 500.

In desperate need of maritime expertise, the AAF approached the Waterman Steamship Corporation in Mobile, Mobile County, so that they would have trained crews to man the ships as they were launched. Waterman Steamship Corporation executive Edward A. Roberts first recommended that the school be held on a ship that would sail around the Gulf and thereby allow trainees to learn both theoretical and practical aspects of life at sea. This novel suggestion was rejected by the AAF as being too expensive. Roberts then offered the Grand Hotel at Point Clear, which Waterman had bought in February 1940 and had razed and then rebuilt to a luxurious standard previously unknown on the Gulf Coast. The hotel had been closed since early 1942 after wartime rationing ended Gulf Coast tourism. The Grand Hotel offered ample rooms for housing students and instructors and classes could be held outside on its grounds and in large public rooms while training could be held on the beach, pier, and vessels that sailed from the hotel into and around Mobile Bay. In August 1944, Waterman leased the Grand Hotel to the AAF for $1.00 for the duration of the war for use as the Mobile Area's Marine Training Command.
British-born Lt. Colonel Matthew Thompson, who had served in both the British and American merchant marines before being commissioned as an AAF captain in 1942, was the school's commandant. His staff included merchant mariners, civil servants detached to the Army for marine duty, Waterman personnel on loan, and retired sailors from the greater Mobile area.
Thompson wanted the trainees to think of themselves as sailors at all times, as his mission was to provide training in elementary seamanship, marine training, and aquatic training for all officers and enlisted personnel. Floors were called decks, smoking was allowed only when the smoking lamp was lit, and the Grand Hotel's bell tolled "ship's time" every 15 minutes.


Despite these inconveniences, the local community welcomed the AAF to the Eastern Shore. On weekends, a morale and morals committee established by Point Clear residents organized a variety of entertainment options for the trainees such as picnics and dinners at homes; and local experts gave lectures on local history and wildlife. Within a month of the Training School being established, the committee had built a clubhouse directly across from the hotel gate where trainees could enjoy soft drinks, read, and dance with local women.
The AAF for its part was keen to maintain good relations with the local population. Locals were encouraged to attend Sunday services at the hotel and often invited to stay for lunch, and children were taken for rides in the various craft at the school, with none being more popular than the six-wheeled amphibious vehicles known as "DUKWs," popularly called "Ducks." Locals were also invited to watch the graduation ceremonies.
The training at the Grand Hotel would be the high point for most of the Aircraft Maintenance Units (F) cadets. Only a very few of the graduates arrived in the operational area, the Mariana Islands and Okinawa, before Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, owing to the slow cruising speed of the maintenance ships and stops at various Pacific bases on their way to the front. They were expected to offer major support to Operation Olympic, the planned November 1945 invasion of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands.
Additional Resources
Air Force Historical Records Agency. "Unit History, AAF Mobile Air Training Command, 1945." Vols. 1-2. Records 205.0508-1. Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama.
Additional Resources
Air Force Historical Records Agency. "Unit History, AAF Mobile Air Training Command, 1945." Vols. 1-2. Records 205.0508-1. Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama.