Piccolo Field

Piccolo Field
Piccolo Field; Eglin Air Force Base Auxiliary Field #5
	Located near: Valparaiso, Florida
	2006 USGS airphoto
	Piccolo Field
Coordinates	30°35′21″N086°37′17″W / 30.58917°N 86.62139°W Coordinates: 30°35′21″N086°37′17″W / 30.58917°N 86.62139°W
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force ; Eglin Air Force Base
Site history
Built	1940
In use	1941-present
Battles/wars	World War II

Last updated May 02, 2019

Piccolo Field, (Formerly: Eglin Air Force Auxiliary Field #5), is a closed United States Air Force field. It is located 9.3 miles northwest of Valparaiso, Florida.

Valparaiso is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,408. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 6,336. It is part of the Fort Walton Beach–Crestview–Destin Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Overview

Auxiliary Field 5 is named Piccolo Field for Capt. Anthony D. Piccolo, who died in the crash of AT-6A-NT Texan, 41-16372,^[1] on 6 October 1942. Piccolo was the commanding officer of the 386th Single Engine Gunnery Training Squadron at Eglin.

History

With the onset of World War II, the Eglin Field military reservation was greatly expanded when the Choctawhatchee National Forest was turned over to the War Department by the U.S. Forestry Service on 18 October 1940, and a series of auxiliary airfields were constructed from January 1941. The history of Piccolo Field is largely unknown, however in March 1942, the airfield was utilized for training by the Doolittle Raiders in preparation for their raid on Japan.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

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 remained there until 1936 when it was relocated to Tallahassee. The Choctawhatchee's two districts were separated by what is now State Road 85.

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department, was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.

The airfield was apparently used during the late 1950s and early 1960s as part of the CIM-10 Bomarc program. Just north of the airfield are approximately 40 BOMARC Launch shelters, along with several support buildings, large lighting poles and the remains of a security fence ( 30°35′37″N086°37′18″W / 30.59361°N 86.62167°W / 30.59361; -86.62167 ). It is unknown if any missiles were located at the facility. It was likely abandoned in the early 1960s when BOMARC funding was ended.

CIM-10 Bomarc A long-range surface-to-air missile

The Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc was a supersonic long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of North America. In addition to being the first operational long-range SAM, it was the only SAM deployed by the United States Air Force.

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 Air Base Wing (96 ABW) as part of the active Eglin base and is not accessible to the public. Today, it serves as a microwave station. A 60-foot radar antenna and some support buildings was installed on the north-south (36/18) runway in April 1961. A secondary site is located on the northeast end of the 05/23 runway. On most base maps, it is identified as Site C-4. A secure storage area is also located on the site.

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References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/ .

↑ USAAF/USAF Accidents for Florida. Accident-Report.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-31.

External links

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[ReferenceC-1] USAAF/USAF Accidents for Florida. Accident-Report.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-31.