Carlstrom Field

Carlstrom Field
DeSoto County, near Arcadia, Florida
Carlstrom Field, 6 January 1999
Type	Army Airfield
Coordinates	27°08′24.00″N 081°47′59.9″W
Built	1917
In use	1917-1945
Controlled by	United States Army Air Service (1917-1923) United States Army Air Forces (1941-1945) (Contract Facility)
Garrison	Army Air Force Training Command

A 1942 photo of a Major George Ola in a Stearman biplane trainer over Carlstrom Field

Carlstrom Field was named for Lt. Victor Carlstrom, (1890–1917) who was killed in an aircraft accident in Newport News, Virginia. At the outbreak of World War I, he was one of the foremost aviators of his time. He made many first flights and set many altitude and distance records. On 9 May 1917, Carlstrom and a student pilot were killed when the wing of the aircraft he was piloting failed in flight.

World War I

Opened in 1917, the airfield was used as a World War I pilot training facility. The airfield facilities consisted of a total of 90 buildings & structures, Including a row of hangars located along a square mile grass field. This site consisted of a total of 696 acres (2.82 km²).

After the Armistice, Carlstrom Field served as a testing area for various aircraft, dirgibles, and other aeronautical weapons. In October 1919, final testing of an experimental unmanned aircraft called the "Kettering Bug", one of the earliest examples of a cruise missile, was successfully tested & launched at Carlstrom Field. The airfield also served as the United States Army Air Service's principal flying school until 1923 when it was closed. All of the buildings were sold to private individuals & removed by 1926.

World War II

With the need for primary pilot training brought on by World War II, Carlstrom re-opened in March 1941 under the operation of Riddle Aeronautical Institute. A new facility was built adjacent to the remains of World War I-era facilities and Riddle contracted to train Royal Air Force aviators and graduated the first class in August 1941.

Carlstrom Field had a very unusual layout, with a compact group of buildings located inside a circular road, with five hangars located around the southern periphery of the road. No paved runway was ever built with the flying conducted from the 1-square-mile (2.6 km²) grass field.

Postwar use

Closed after the war, Carlstrom Field became the site of the G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital in 1947. Many of World War II era buildings remain in use by the hospital, with former six-plane hangars serving as maintenance buildings. The band shell, site of dances and other entertainment during the war, remains on the site.

In 2002, the G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital was closed and operates today as the Desoto County Juvenile Correctional Complex. The only remembrance of Carlstrom field today is a plaque on the administration building placed when it was refurbished by the state of Florida in 1992, and a tired B-17 weather vane on top of the building.

The Oak Ridge Cemetery in Arcadia is the final resting-place of twenty-three RAF cadets who died while in the United States for training. A special marker at the cemetery recognizes their service and a ceremony is held in their memory each year on Memorial Day.

Though the original World War II blueprints called for six hangars at Carlstrom Field, only five were ever constructed. Of those five, the two built first survive. Also still standing are the mess hall, band shell, canteen, administration building, water and sewage plants, and two training buildings. All that remains from World War I version of Carlstrom Field are concrete pads along Highway 31 upon which the wooden hangars stood, and across the highway, on private property, is a concrete full-scale outline of a World War I biplane that is approximately one foot tall. It was used for target practice by filling it up with water and cadets would shoot at it from the air and be able to see "hits" when their bullets struck the water.

See also

• Florida World War II Army Airfields

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
• Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas ASIN: B000NYX3PC

External links

• Abandoned and Little-Known airfields, Carlstrom Field