| Venice, a city of approximately 21,000, is located in | | | | Due to the beauty of the area, warm weather, and |
| Sarasota County Florida. The city's early as well as | | | | white sandy beaches ,many of the men and women |
| present claim to fame lies in it's airport located on the | | | | who. were stationed in Venice during the war came |
| south side of town. | | | | back to make it their permanent home |
| Built in the early 1940's by the United States Army Air | | | | Having been listed in many circles as the shark's tooth |
| Force it served as a military training facility base, being | | | | capital of the world , Venice holds an annual shark's |
| used as well by (ATC), Air Transport Command to | | | | tooth festival to commemorate the abundance of |
| deliver US built aircraft to Britain. As soon as the war | | | | shark's teeth(some of which are known to be |
| was over the US government gave the airport to the | | | | thousands of years old) that can be found in the area. |
| city of Venice. | | | | Teeth can be found by walking the beach and sifting |
| The airport has 2, 5000 runways and is the base of | | | | through the sand, although the best results are had by |
| FFTC (Florida Flight Training Center), that does pilot | | | | diving off shore. One can only hope to find the teeth |
| training as well as charter service within Florida and the | | | | without the shark attached. Just kidding, shark attacks |
| surrounding states. | | | | are extremely rare, no shark attacks have been |
| Triple Diamond is the main FBO and provides | | | | reported in Sarasota County in many,many years. |
| assistance to jet aircraft. | | | | Probably the best area to find shark's teeth is south of |
| On September 12, 2001, national news and the FBI | | | | town behind the airport at a beach known as |
| descended on Venice as it was discovered that three | | | | Caspersen's Beach, although Sharkey's Beach is also |
| of the WTC 9/11 terrorists, Mohamed Atta, Marwan | | | | popular, where shovels and scoops can be rented to |
| Al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, had all lived in Venice for | | | | find teeth anywhere from 1/4 in. to 3 inches and larger. |
| the purpose of taking flight training lessons at the | | | | In the past, due to the near perfect weather and |
| Venice Municipal Airport. The trio had all enrolled in | | | | beautiful scenery, Venice has been the winter home |
| Huffman Aviation. | | | | for many organizations,including the Kentucky Military |
| Atta's time in Venice has been chronicled by Daniel | | | | Institute as well as the Ringling Circus . |
| Hopsicker in his book," Welcome to Terrorland." | | | | Be it for a short stay or a lifetime home, Venice calls. |