Naval Air Station Glenview, located in Glenview, Illinois on Chicago’s North Shore, operated continuously from 1923 through 1995 — one of the longest-operating Navy Reserve air stations in the country. Through World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Cold War, NAS Glenview served as the principal Navy aviation facility for the Chicago metropolitan area and the broader Great Lakes region. The installation hosted Navy and Marine Corps Reserve aviation units throughout its operational life before its BRAC closure in 1995.

Multi-Era Shore Facility Asbestos

NAS Glenview’s exceptionally long operational history — over 70 years — means its facilities span the entire range of asbestos-era construction. Buildings erected from the 1920s through the 1960s reflect different generations of Navy construction practice, all of which incorporated asbestos in various applications:

  • Early hangars and original base buildings from the 1920s and 1930s used asbestos-containing roofing, pipe insulation, and boiler lagging in the original installation
  • World War II expansion construction added barracks, administrative buildings, and maintenance facilities built with the high-asbestos-content materials characteristic of wartime rapid construction
  • Postwar additions and renovation cycles through the 1950s and 1960s incorporated asbestos floor tile, ceiling systems, and pipe covering during major facility upgrades
  • Steam heating infrastructure serving this large Chicago-area installation used asbestos insulation on boilers and steam distribution piping maintained through the decades

Reserve Aviation and Shore Duty

Navy and Marine Corps Reserve aviators who drilled at NAS Glenview and active-duty personnel permanently assigned to the station were present in facilities with asbestos-containing building materials throughout the installation’s operational period. The installation’s location in the Chicago industrial region meant that regional insulation contractors who worked at NAS Glenview also worked at documented asbestos sites throughout the metropolitan area.

VA Claims for NAS Glenview Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers shore-duty asbestos exposure at Navy installations including NAS Glenview. Veterans who served at Naval Air Station Glenview in active-duty, Reserve, or support capacities during any portion of the 1923–1995 operational period and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer should document their assignment through DD-214 or Reserve service records listing Naval Air Station Glenview or Glenview, IL.