Florida World War II Army Airfields

During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established numerous airfields in Florida for antisubmarine defense in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico and for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers.

Contents

• Multiple Commands
• AAF Training Command
• Proving Ground Command
• References

Most of these airfields were under the command of Third Air Force, the AAF Antisubmarine Command (AAFAC), or the Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC), the latter being the predecessor of the current-day United States Air Force's Air Education and Training Command (AETC). However the other USAAF support commands, Air Technical Service Command (ATSC) and Air Transport Command (ATC) or Troop Carrier Command, also commanded a significant number of airfields in a support roles.

It is still possible to find remnants of these wartime airfields as most were converted into municipal airports, while others transitioned to the newly established United States Air Force in 1947. Two remained as active USAF installations until 1960 and a third until 1962, at which time they, too, were converted into purely civilian airports, the latter as a commercial airport. A fourth became a joint civil-military commercial airport hosting a Florida Air National Guard fighter-interceptor group until 1968 when the airport was permanently closed and replaced by a newly constructed international airport and concurrently constructed Air National Guard base also hosting the same Air National Guard fighter unit. A fifth remained as an active Strategic Air Command bomber, tanker and reconnaissance base, later incorporating a commercial jetport and becoming a joint civil-military airport in 1962 until the closure of the USAF installation in 1975 and its conversion to a civilian commercial international airport in 1975-76. A sixth remained as an active Tactical Air Command then Air Combat Command fighter base until 1995. Having been substantially damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, it was converted to air reserve base status as a fighter base for the Air Force Reserve Command and a fighter alert detachment site for the Florida Air National Guard. The remaining airfields that transitioned from USAAF to USAF continue to function as modern day active U.S. Air Force installations.

At the former USAAF and USAAF-cum-USAF airfields, hundreds of the temporary buildings that were used also survive today, with some still used for aeronautical activities and others being used for a variety of other purposes.