Naval Outlying Landing Field Choctaw is the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

's designation for an auxiliary airfield that was originally constructed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as Eglin Field (now

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...

) Auxiliary Field # 10. It is located 16.6 miles northeast of

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principa ...

History

Constructed in Santa Rosa County, the westernmost of Eglin's ten satellite fields, Auxiliary Field 10 was originally named Dillon Field for Captain Barclay H. Dillon, United States Army Air Forces, a test pilot of the Fighter Section of the 1st Proving Ground Group, Eglin Field, killed 2 October 1943 when his P-38J-5-LO Lightning, AAF Ser. No. ''42-67103'', crashed 8 miles W of Milton, Florida. Field 10 was later named Eglin Dillon Airdrome. The field was constructed in 1942 by the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

as part of the Eglin Field military reservation. It initially consisted of three 4000' asphalt runways in an "A" type configuration. Runway 18/36 is now 8000' long with 1000' of overhang on each side and 150' wide. No ground station was constructed. It was transferred to the United States Navy in 1943 as NAF 05822 and was designated an Outlying Field for Naval Air Station Whiting Field. Now principally used for U.S. Navy primary flight training, the Navy refers to it as Outlying Landing Field Choctaw (OLF), a satellite field for Training Air Wing Six at

Naval Air Station Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United State ...

and Training Air Wing Five at Naval Air Station Whiting Field. It is also used for

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

(UAV) training by the U.S. Air Force. It is expected that Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...

s assigned to the

33d Fighter Wing The 33rd Fighter Wing, sometimes written 33d Fighter Wing, (33 FW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Education and Training Command's Nineteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida where it is a tenant ...

will utilize OLF Choctaw for training.

References

External links

NOLF Choctaw
at GlobalSecurity.org 1942 establishments in Florida Airports in Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Santa Rosa County, Florida Choctaw Military installations in Florida Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Florida {{USN-stub

History

See also

References

External links