Naval Air Station Willow Grove, located in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, operated as a Navy aviation installation from World War II through its BRAC conversion in 2011. The installation served as a major Naval Air Reserve base and hosted active-duty aviation commands, with hangars and maintenance facilities supporting Navy and Marine Corps reserve aviation units throughout the Cold War era. Publicly filed facility records — including insulator trade databases maintained for use in asbestos litigation — document Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania facility inventories, establishing the installation as a recognized site in the asbestos claims record.

Shore Facility Asbestos Sources

NAS Willow Grove’s aviation facilities were constructed beginning in the World War II period and expanded through the Cold War. The installation’s proximity to Philadelphia’s industrial base meant it was served by the same regional insulation and construction trades that worked on documented asbestos projects throughout the Delaware Valley.

Shore facility asbestos sources at Willow Grove included:

  • Hangars and aircraft maintenance facilities built in the postwar era with asbestos fireproofing on structural steel and asbestos-containing roofing systems
  • Steam heating infrastructure serving the base’s barracks, administrative buildings, and hangar complex — insulated with asbestos pipe lagging and block insulation
  • Maintenance shops where Heat & Frost Insulators and other trades performed insulation work documented in regional trade facility lists
  • Barracks and administrative buildings constructed across the 1940s–1960s using asbestos floor tile, ceiling tile, and pipe insulation standard in Navy shore construction

Reserve Aviation Personnel and Shore Duty

Reserve aviation units based at NAS Willow Grove drilled regularly in facilities with asbestos-containing building materials. Active-duty personnel assigned to the installation — including aviation maintenance ratings, administrative staff, and shore support personnel — accumulated exposure in the installation’s hangar and building infrastructure during their assignment periods.

VA Claims for NAS Willow Grove Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at shore installations including NAS Willow Grove. Veterans who served at Willow Grove in active-duty or reserve aviation maintenance capacities before the early 1980s 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 Willow Grove or Horsham/Willow Grove, PA.