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Army Air Fields (WWII) · from 1935

Eglin Air Force Base

United States Air Force operating base in northwestern Florida.

History

Eglin Air Force Base (IATA: VPS, ICAO: KVPS, FAA LID: VPS) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about three miles (5 km) southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.

The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The 96 TW is the test and evaluation center for Air Force air-delivered weapons, navigation and guidance systems, command and control systems, and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) systems.

Eglin AFB was established 91 years ago in 1935 as the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base. It is named in honor of Lt. Col. Frederick I. Eglin (1891–1937), who was killed in a crash of his Northrop A-17 attack aircraft on a flight from Langley to Maxwell Field, Alabama.

Text from Wikipedia: Eglin Air Force Base, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

  1. 1931
    In 1931, personnel of the Air Corps Tactical School, newly relocated to Maxwell Field, Alabama, sought a location for a bombing and gunnery range.
  2. 1941
    Also assigned to Commanding General, Fourth Corps Area, United States Army, June 1941-1 April 1942
  3. 1942
    Garland O. Peel Jr., who died in the take-off crash of a Martin B-12AM of the 387th School Squadron, 2 January 1942, when he suffered engine failure.
  4. 1944
    Robin E. Epler, deputy commander (Technical) of the Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, killed 28 January 1944 in the crash of a Douglas A-20G-10-DO Havoc one-mile (1.6 km) NE of Crestview, Florida.
  5. 1946
    The 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group was activated at Eglin Field, Florida, on 6 February 1946, operating out of Auxiliary Field 3.
  6. 1965
    Reactivated at Eglin on 1 April 1965 with F-4C Phantom IIs, the wing operated, successively, F-4D and E models into the 1970s before transitioning to the F-15 Eagle.
  7. 1975
    The Air Force Armament Museum was founded on base in 1975.
  8. 1994
    On 10 August 1994 construction began on the All Conflicts' Veterans War Memorial on the site of the old POW/MIA memorial on the western end of Eglin Boulevard.
  9. 1997
    On 6 October 1997, the McKinley Climatic Laboratory was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone at this base

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More history

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