It was all hands on deck when board member Joe Troiani presented an acclaimed PBS documentary at the museum on Dec. 7. “Heroes on Deck: World War II on Lake Michigan” tells the untold tale of a program that trained more than 15,000 carrier pilots off the shores of the Windy City during World War II.

The training took place on a pair of coal-fired, side-wheel passenger steamers transformed into “flattops,” with scores of trainees overshooting their mark and sending their planes to the bottom of the lake. The documentary charts the recent recovery of those rare war birds and the ingenious training program that changed the course of the war in the Pacific.

A retired Navy commander, Troiani set the stage for the screening with a lively AV presentation that touched on the program and tracked the success of these brave pilots after their training was complete.