Dale Mabry Army Airfield
Dale Mabry Army Airfield
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| Part of Third Air Force | |
| Located near: Tallahassee, Florida | |
1942 airphoto
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 Dale Mabry Army Airfield
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| Coordinates | 30°26′15″N 084°20′14″W / 30.43750°N 84.33722°WCoordinates: 30°26′15″N 084°20′14″W / 30.43750°N 84.33722°W |
| Site history | |
| In use | 1940-1946 |
Dale Mabry Army Airfield, was a World War II United States Army Air Force located at the Dale Mabry Field airport in Tallahassee, Florida. The military airfield closed in 1946 and the airport was returned to civil use.
The military use of Tallahassee Dale Mabry Field began in 1938 when the United States Army Air Corps established a contract flying school at the airport. In 1940 U.S. Senator Claude Pepper and Florida Governor Spessard Holland influenced the Army to make Dale Mabry Field a United States Army Air Force airfield as part of the buildup of the military prior to the United States entry into World War II. The airfield was named after Captain Dale Mabry of Tallahassee, who during World War I, experimented with the use of Balloons.
In October 1940 military activity began with the construction of a railroad siding and drainage improvements to overcome the swamp conditions at the site. Hundreds of laborers began clearing swampland for temporary quarters for Dale Mabry Army Airfield. The need for a place to train pilots prompted the federal government to set a 90-day completion deadline and construction began that month. The Army constructed three concrete runways to serve their needs. The field was described as having 2 paved runways. One runway was 4,000 feet (1,200 m) running northwest to southeast and a second was 2,500-foot (760 m) running north to south. Another 3,400-foot (1,000 m) sand & sod runway ran east to west. In addition, several sub-bases and auxiliary airfields were assigned:
The base became a nearly self-sufficient city, with several runways, barracks, officers’ quarters, mess hall, hangars, a hospital, a church and a bowling alley. Originally 530 acres (214 ha), the airfield grew to 1,720 acres (696 ha) and 133 buildings during the course of the war. Training activity peaked in mid-1944 with base complement averaging 1,300 officers, 3,000 enlisted men & women, and 800 civilian employees. Students at Dale Mabry also used a gunnery base at Alligator Point and a bombing range at Sopchoppy on the Gulf for their training needs.
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