Boca Raton Army Air Field
Boca Raton Army Air Field | |
---|---|
Part of Army Air Force Training Command | |
Located near: Boca Raton, Florida | |
![]() Boca Raton Army Airfield – Airfield | |
![]() Training School Area, located to the north and east of the airfield, on the east side of the El Rio Canal. This part of the base was largely destroyed in 1947 by a hurricane. | |
Coordinates | 26°22′33″N 080°06′07″W / 26.37583°N 80.10194°W |
Site history | |
In use | 1940–1945 |
Boca Raton Army Air Field was a World War II United States Army Air Forces airfield, located 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northwest of the 1940s borders of Boca Raton, Florida. During World War II, it operated the only training for the then new and secret technology of radar. Closed in 1946, due to annexation the former base is now within the city of Boca Raton; the land is currently occupied by the Boca Raton Airport, Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College.
History
Origins
In 1936, the Boca Raton Airport was a small city airport. In 1941, in response to the emerging
In the early-1940s, Boca Raton's population numbered only 723. This enabled the
Eventually three major air bases,
Boca Raton AAF included 5,860 acres and stretched from Dixie Highway on the East to Military Trail on the West and from the current Spanish River Blvd. on the North to Palmetto Park Road to some point on the South. Areas like Old Floresta remained in private hands and many of the houses in the subdivision were rented to air force officers and their families.
Beginning with the then existing Boca Raton Airport, 3,500 construction workers and $11 million in government appropriations converted the facility into the Army Air Force's only radar training station during World War II.
Construction of the base began in June 1941 and continued to expand during the war. Over nine million dollars was spent constructing the facility and an average of 1,200 civilians worked on the base. As the Army Air Force's only radar training station during World War II, the Boca Raton base grew to eight hundred buildings with a troop strength of more than 16,000.
Eastern Technical Training Command
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The new base was opened on 1 June 1942. Flight operations from the airfield began during the summer. Boca Raton AAF was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces Eastern Technical Training Command 3501st Base Unit (Technical School, Radar).
Other units assigned to Boca Raton were the 319th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, which performed the base housekeeping duties, and the
Although planned as a
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Boca_Raton_Army_Airfield_-_Flightline_-_1944.jpg/220px-Boca_Raton_Army_Airfield_-_Flightline_-_1944.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Boca_Raton_Army_Airfield_-_Provost_Office.jpg/220px-Boca_Raton_Army_Airfield_-_Provost_Office.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Boca_Raton_AAF_-_Hurricane_1947_-_2.jpg/220px-Boca_Raton_AAF_-_Hurricane_1947_-_2.jpg)
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The main mission, however, of Boca Raton AAF was the training of Air Force personnel in the use of radar. The 3501st BU provided instruction courses for airborne radar operators, mechanics, and electronic officers. Aviation cadets sometimes spent up to 20 hours per day on academic and military training. Classes included engineering, aerodynamics, and communications. After finishing their education at
These courses meant an ever-increasing need for flight training and for aircraft. The heavy volume of maritime traffic in the Atlantic provided ample opportunity for practice in radar applications. The airfield operated 24 hours a day with
Life at the Boca Raton base was almost completely self-contained. In fact, the citizens of Boca Raton soon came to be dependent upon the base's recreational, entertainment, and medical facilities. The Army Air Forces also took over the luxurious oceanfront
African-American soldiers provided much of the necessary support staff for the operations of the base, and a school was initiated to teach them aircraft engine repair and maintenance. Black soldiers were segregated in Squadron F. Their housing, meals, training, and recreation were all separate from the white soldiers in accordance with the Florida laws regarding segregation at the time.
In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force, on 1 May 1944, training units in the Zone of the Interior (ZI) (Continental United States) were re-designated as "Army Air Force Base Units". At Boca Raton, the 3501st Army Air Force Base Unit (Technical School, Radar) assumed the training school mission. By 1944, several hundred planes were regularly transiting the airfield, being equipped with Radar. Although most were B-17 Flying Fortresses, in 1945, several
With the end of World War II in 1945, the radar training for both American and allied troops continued at Boca Raton but the numbers in the program constantly declined. With the rapid demobilization of the armed forces in late 1945 and 1946, a major problem facing Air Training Command was a severe shortage of instructors, as many had been separated from the military in the rush to demobilize after the war ended. The 3501st AAFBU, however, remained active and training was continued despite difficulties.
As a cost-cutting measure, War Department officials in early 1947 were making plans to dispose of the facility, The radar training program would be moved
On 1 January 1948, jurisdiction of Boca Raton AAF was transferred to
Cold War use
Boca Raton AFAF was used by Research and Development Command used the airfield for various R&D projects, including testing of the Convair XB-46 Experimental jet bomber. In 1952, it became a secondary airfield for Palm Beach's Military Air Transport Service 1707th Air Transport Wing large transports. It was also used as part of the MATS training school at Palm Beach as an auxiliary airfield.
During the
For the testing, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps recruited enlisted men from the farm states of the Midwest. Close to a hundred men worked from a large laboratory in a Quonset hut at the north end of the test site. No one wore uniforms, and vehicles were painted black. The men planted wheat between and along the runways of the military airfield. When the wheat was about a foot high, it was sprayed with a fungus called “stem rust of rye,” which formed spores that multiplied rapidly. Every three days, the men vacuumed up the resulting millions of spores and packed them in one-to-two gallon stainless steel containers, which were driven to the Avon Park Air Force Range, near Sebring. From there they were flown to an unknown destination. In 1957 the Chemical Corps shut down the secret operation at Boca Raton and kept only a skeleton crew at the base. In 1969, the chemically-treated wheat gathered from Boca Raton and related sites was destroyed by order of President
Closure
Air Force budget restraints in the late 1950s and local pressure to close
By 1958, budget reductions caused the closure of the Boca Raton AFAF too. One year later, the military turned over the remaining property to the City of Boca Raton and the State of Florida. As part of the turnover of the facility, the Federal Government released 1,000 acres of the property in 1959 for educational use (now Florida Atlantic University) and transferred control of all the land to the State of Florida. Only 200 acres were left before the Boca Raton Airport Authority was authorized to take possession of the land.
Current uses
With the turnover of the military airfield to civil control, a new Boca Raton Airport was constructed in 1960. The former military airfield was completely torn up and removed, and new facilities were built to accommodate general aviation services. A new parking ramp and a new 04/22 NE/SW main runway and taxiway were constructed along with hangars, a terminal, and other components. The new airport does not use any of the runways, taxiways or buildings of the former Air Force facility. As of 2016, there are no scheduled flights at the Boca Raton Airport.
That said, several World War II buildings remain in use on the grounds of the Florida Atlantic University campus, built in 1961 to the east of the Boca Raton Airport on the east side of the airfield. These can be found in the area bounded by El Rio Canal on the east, Florida Atlantic Boulevard on the west, N.W. 32d Street on the north, and N.W. 28th Street on the south. In addition, the former military north-south taxiway exists north of the FAU Stadium on the campus, part of it being used as a parking lot.
Palm Beach State College's Boca Raton campus, located adjacent to FAU, uses the wartime main aircraft parking ramp as its parking lot. The wartime ramp stretches from Classroom Building B on the south end past the main Administration Building and the Humanities & Technology Building, past Boca Tech and beyond FAU Boulevard to the north.[2] Today a myriad of cars, trucks and SUVs park on the same concrete that during World War II, B-17s and other historic aircraft occupied.
East of the drainage canal, the former radar training base is now all but unrecognizable, the landscape being a mixture of homes, retention lakes and light commercial businesses.
See also
- Florida World War II Army Airfields
- Eastern Technical Training Command
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- ^ "The Yamato Colony: Japanese Pioneers in Florida". The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
- ^ "Palm Beach State College at Boca Raton" (PDF). Retrieved July 27, 2017.
- Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas
- Maurer, Maurer (ed.). Combat Squadrons of the Air Force: World War II. ISBN 0-405-12194-6.
- Maurer, Maurer (ed.), Air Force Combat Units of World War II, History and Insignia, USAF Historical Division, Washington, DC, 1961 (reprint 1983) ISBN 0-89201-092-4
- Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC. OCLC 57007862, 1050653629
- World War II airfields database: Florida
- Boca Raton Airport website
- The Military in Boca Raton
- Boca biological tests get probe Palm Beach Post 25 July 2002