Peel Field, (Formerly: Eglin Air Force Auxiliary Field #4), is a closed United States Air Force field. It is located 5.7 miles west of
Valparaiso, Florida
Valparaiso is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Crestview, Florida, Crestview–Destin, Florida, Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida ...
.
Overview
Auxiliary Field 4 is named Peel Field for 2nd Lt Garland O. Peel, Jr.,, USAAF, who died in the take-off crash of
Martin B-12AM, AAF Ser. No. ''33-262'', of the 387th School Squadron, 2 January 1942, when he suffered engine failure. He was a gunnery school instructor at Eglin.
[Factsheets : Eglin Air Force Base History](_blank)
. Eglin.af.mil. Retrieved on 2011-10-31. Peel Field was utilized for the filming of scenes for the 1944 film ''
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, Ame ...
''.
Eglin in the movies
. (PDF) . Retrieved on 2011-10-31.
History
With the onset of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the Eglin Field military reservation was greatly expanded when the Choctawhatchee National Forest
Choctawhatchee National Forest is a United States National Forest established by President Theodore Roosevelt on November 27, 1908. The supervisory headquarters was established at DeFuniak Springs and moved to Pensacola in September 1910. It ...
was turned over to the War Department War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet ...
by the U.S. Forestry Service on 18 October 1940, and a series of auxiliary airfields were constructed from January 1941 onwards.
The history of Peel Field is largely unknown, and the exact date of construction is undetermined. World War II wartime temporary housing for NCOs located here was razed in the 1960s. In the early 1960s, while in a moribund state, one of the runways was used as an unofficial auto drag strip by local civilians.
Current status
The airfield was incorporated into Eglin AFB on 9 October 1959 and was inactivated. However, the airfield remains under the jurisdiction of the 96th Test Wing
The 96th Test Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Test Center of Air Force Materiel Command at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The wing was activated at Eglin in 1994 as the 96th Air Base Wing, the headquarters for ...
(96 TW) as part of the active Eglin base and is not accessible to the public. The ramp of the non-flight-rated facility now serves as a vehicle park for aircraft and armored vehicles before and after being expended as targets on the Eglin ranges. The Eglin AFB Aero Modelers flying club uses the south end of the north–south (18/36) runway for radio-controlled flying on weekends.
See also
* 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, attack planes, an ...
References
{{Reflist
Abandoned Airfields: Peel Field / Eglin Air Force Aux #4
Fields of the United States Air Force
Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Florida
Airports in Walton County, Florida