Venice Army Air Base was activated as a Service Group Training Center on July 7, 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the U.S. role in World War II. It was created to train service groups for overseas deployment to provide maintenance and operations support for air combat units in Europe and the Pacific, and by the end of the war nine service groups had been processed there, including a Chinese-American group later deployed to the China theater of operations. In February 1943, as its primary mission shifted, it became Venice Army Air Field and focused on training combat fighter pilots for wartime operations. Fighter pilot training began in June 1943 in Bell P-39 Airacobras, and as the war evolved, hundreds of new pilots trained in Curtis-Wright P-40 Warhawks, Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, and North American P-51 Mustangs. During the war, the base processed more than 20,000 men through its service group and flight training programs, and local residents said that the skies were filled with airplanes. After reaching a wartime peak of almost 6,000 permanently assigned men and women, the base, under the command of the Third Air Force, was ordered to begin closure in October 1945 and ceased operations by the end of December. The airfield was decommissioned, and on May 20, 1946, the federal government granted the City of Venice an airport license for the facilities. On June 10, 1947, the federal government issued the initial quit claim deed transferring airfield property and assets to the City of Venice to operate and maintain the airfield as a municipal airport for the Venice area.