Postwar Wake Island
After the Japanese surrendered Wake Island at the end of World War II, the United States Navy resumed authority over the atoll. Within a couple of years the navy turned administration over the Department of Commerce, and the CAA (FAA after 1958) maintained airfield operations from 1947 to 1972, paving and extending the runway. Commercial airlines including Pan American Airways and Transocean Airlines established facilities on Wake and military and other aircraft regularly stopped in for fuel. Numerous government agencies and commercial...
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