By a strike of luck Mike was put on a draft with 20 seaman to none other than NAS Grosse Ile. He was assigned to building wings for the N2S's at what was known as the lower base. Mike stated, "The Brit's were crashing the Yellow Perils all over the place". The liberty was great and the WAVES were beautiful to 18 year old Mike. Gunnery School at Purcell was his next duty station. He was then transferred to NAS, San Diego and assigned to VPB-4 and saw overseas duty as an air crewman in seaplanes with missions over Saipan, Guam, Okinawa and the Marshall Islands. Returning to NAS Alameda in 1951-52 saw duty aboard the USS Currituck AV-7, a seaplane tender. Mike was a station keeper from 1947 to 1950 at NAS Grosse Ile.