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When the U.S. Army Air Corps from Maxwell Alabama started searching for a site for an air force base in 1933, the area near Valparaiso was perfectly suited for the task. 164 of the 3,000 buildings on base were developed during World War II in an attempt to aid in the war effort. The main contribution of Eglin Air Force Base in World War II was to serve as a field to research and experiment air warfare. Because of Eglin Air Force Base’s proximity to the water, many of the operations were designed to have practice in landing and taking off of air craft carriers. Specifically, the Doolittle B-25 crews from the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron and 17th Bombardment Group practiced maneuvering with air craft carriers prior to the raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Other aircraft, such as the B-17, and the B-29, were tested at Eglin Air Force Base during World War II.
→Eglin Air Force Base
===Aviation/Aviation Bases===
====Eglin Air Force Base====
By 1941, the Eglin Air Force Base became a major research and development center. For example, the McKinley Climatic Laboratory was built during World War II to test armaments in different climates. In addition, the German V-1 rockets wSere reverse-engineered at Eglin Air Force Base. Later in the war, around 1945, Eglin also held 300 German prisoners of war (POWs), and these POWs were employed to do manual labor at the base.
The Eglin-Hurlburt Field Airdrome extension of the Eglin Air Force Base was built in 1941 to be the headquarters of the Electronic Section of Air Proving Ground Command. In addition to serving as a ground command, Eglin-Hurlburt was used to train for radar countermeasures.2
====The Blue Angels====
At the end of WWII, one Admiral Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team in order to keep and increase public interest in naval aviation. Their first flight was on June 15th, 1946, at the Naval Air Station (NAS) in Jacksonville Florida with the original flight leader Lieutenant Commander Roy M. “Butch” Voris flying a Grumman F6F Hellcat. The name “The Blue Angels” came about in July of 1946 at a show in Omaha, Nebraska from an advertisement in the New York Times for a night club and they developed their now famous diamond formation in August of 1946. Since their creation, they’ve flown for than 427 million fans.
