TIGHAR
Historic Aircraft Recovery and Preservation => General discussion => Topic started by: Mike Piner on December 15, 2010, 07:30:58 AM
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Recently the Military channel has been running the Doolittle Raid . It was mentioned that the crews flew out of Eglin Field in Florida near Ft Walden Beach, and that there was one field that they practiced takeoffs, so as not to have people asking questions. After some searching, I went to a site called Abandoned & little used airfields.
try http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/FL/airfields_FL_Eglin.htm Scroll down to end is Wagner Field.
You can get the Lat/Long and visit each on Google Earth . Still visible is the marks on the runway. Mike Piner
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It was mentioned that the crews flew out of Eglin Field in Florida near Ft Walden Beach, and that there was one field that they practiced takeoffs, so as not to have people asking questions.
Some of these little known and/or used airfields are still in use for Special Forces C-130 Spectre Gunship launches for that same reason (secrecy) so the marks you may be seeing may not be that old. They still do launches for clandestine drug interdiction work in South America. Don't ask me how I know because if I told you I then would have to kill you.
BTW: It is Ft "Walton" Beach not Ft "Walden".
Don
(USAF, Ret)
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Some of these little known and/or used airfields are still in use for Special Forces
Thought I might want to add that should have said "were" not "are" still in use at least as of 1999, after that timeframe I couldn't tell you. I can't state for certain that Wagner Field is one of them but for some reason the name rings as very familiar.
Don
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I stated that marks are still visible on the runway. By marks I mean measured stripes across the runway as to the take off length of an aircraft carrier launch of the B25's. I got the location from the website and looked on Google Earth, which is generally 2010 dated, and you can see the orthagonally painted marks. I had quite a lot of fun tracking all this down. In my area there is an old army base that I have visited, which is owned and operated by Camp Lejeune, NC for Marine training. Mike Piner
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By marks I mean measured stripes across the runway as to the take off length of an aircraft carrier launch of the B25's.
Thought you were talking about tire marks from take-offs and landings...
LTM
Don
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Interesting stuff. The link didn't work when I tried it, but Wiki has some info on Duke Field (Eglin Field #1):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Field
According to Wiki, six survivors from the Doolittle raid held a reunion at Duke field in 2008.
Here is a Wikipedia link that talks about the various Eglin fields (scroll down about midway for a description of each field):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglin_Air_Force_Base
Apparently Field #3 was used for the fictional set of the movie 12 o'clock high. I was curious if that was where Paul Mantz did his famous B-17 belly-landing, but a google search said that it was filmed at Ozark AAF in Alabama.
I looked at Eglin Field #2 with Google Earth, initially it looks abandoned but after zooming in there is a C-130, what looks like a couple of F-16s and perhaps 2 old F-4s. This underscores what Don said about being used for special ops.
Fun stuff, thanks for posting about it.
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for those with an interest in B-29s in the Pacific this is an interesting story and historical video
Subject: Video of Submarine Rescue of B-29 Crew
An entire crew of a B-29 (12 aviators) was rescued by a US submarine after their plane was shot down in 1944 several miles off the coast of Japan. The entire rescue was filmed in color video, but then sat in a guy's closet until now. This is a story from a Denver TV station of one of those rescued aviators to whom the video was delivered. It also shows their transfer to another submarine that is likely headed back to port before the one that accomplished the rescue!
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34762914001?bctid=672454611001
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Great story! Thanks for the link.
It's amazing how this stuff turns up after so much time has passed. With as much as the Earhart story has been in the news lately it'll be interesting to see what gems come TIGHAR's way.
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In my original post, the link didn't work, so try this: Google "Abandoned & Little known Airfields in Florida"; click on the link that has "...Eglin area..." in it. Select Eglin area; There are ten highlighted. This can be found in all ares of the country. You may be able to find a rare aircraft by this search. Vist them in your area, and who knows what you may find. Mike Piner
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In my original post, the link didn't work, so try this: Google "Abandoned & Little known Airfields in Florida"; click on the link that has "...Eglin area..." in it. Select Eglin area; There are ten highlighted. This can be found in all ares of the country. You may be able to find a rare aircraft by this search. Vist them in your area, and who knows what you may find. Mike Piner
This link should work. (http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/FL/Airfields_FL_Eglin.htm) If it's not the right one, let me know and I'll try again. ;)
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A really interesting Old Army air field in calif. is Helendale field foung at North Lat.34.8, West Lon.117.8.
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A really interesting Old Army air field in calif. is Helendale field foung at North Lat.34.8, West Lon.117.8.
I see some possible sites nearby. (http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=34.87551,-117.740822&spn=0.096469,0.165825&z=13)
Helendale Auxiliary Army Airfield No.2 (http://wikimapia.org/8196288/Helendale-Auxiliary-Army-Airfield-No-2-site) seems to be east of that location at <34.8268738, -117.3042441>.
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for those with an interest in B-29s in the Pacific this is an interesting story and historical video
Subject: Video of Submarine Rescue of B-29 Crew
An entire crew of a B-29 (12 aviators) was rescued by a US submarine after their plane was shot down in 1944 several miles off the coast of Japan. The entire rescue was filmed in color video, but then sat in a guy's closet until now. This is a story from a Denver TV station of one of those rescued aviators to whom the video was delivered. It also shows their transfer to another submarine that is likely headed back to port before the one that accomplished the rescue!
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34762914001?bctid=672454611001
Thanks for posting the link Andrew. Amazing story and incredible footage of the B-29 going down. Hard to believe that color footage like this was left in a closet for all of these years.
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A really interesting Old Army air field in calif. is Helendale field foung at North Lat.34.8, West Lon.117.8.
Talk about weird coincidences. I know a person who lives in Helendale (His name is Dale and he refers to it as "Dale-In-Hell" as he isn't one for the desert). He was telling me about the former "Secret" air base at Helendale and sent me this link:
http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/CA/Airfields_CA_PalmdaleN.htm
(the Helendale field is close to the bottom)
He sent it at about the same time that you wrote this post. Strange but true!