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Eglin Air Force Base (IATA: VPS, ICAO: KVPS) is a United States Air Force base located 1-mile (1.6 km) southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. Eglin is the home of the Air Armament Center (AAC) and is one of four product centers in Air Force Materiel Command. Serving as the focal point for all Air Force armaments, the AAC is the center responsible for the development, acquisition, testing, deployment and sustainment of all air-delivered weapons. The host wing at Eglin is the 96th Air Base Wing (96 ABW) whose mission consists of supporting the Air Armament Center and the myriad of associate units with traditional military services as well as all the services of a small city, to include civil engineering, personnel, logistics, communications, computer, medical, security, and all other host services. Critical to the success of Eglinโs mission, the 96th Air Base Wing provides a large number of base operating support functions. The residential portion of the base is a census-designated place; its population was 8,082 at the 2000 census.
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Demographics Eglin employs more than 8,500 military and approximately 4,500 civilians, with an additional 2,200 jobs due to move to Eglin under the 2005 BRAC. As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 8,082 people, 2,302 households, and 2,262 families residing on the base. The population density was 2,640.1 people per square mile (1,019.8/kmยฒ). There were 2,320 housing units at an average density of 757.9/sq mi (292.7/kmยฒ). The racial makeup of the base was 71.79% White, 14.82% Black or African American, 0.48% Native American, 2.96% Asian, 0.38% Pacific Islander, 4.23% from other races, and 5.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.19% of the population. There were 2,302 households out of which 79.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 89.8% were married couples living together, 5.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 1.7% were non-families. 1.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 0.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.50 and the average family size was 3.51. On the base the population was spread out with 43.5% under the age of 18, 15.2% from 18 to 24, 39.6% from 25 to 44, 1.6% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females there were 100.6 males. The median income for a household on the base was $31,951, and the median income for a family was $31,859. Males had a median income of $25,409 versus $19,176 for females. The per capita income for the base was $10,670. About 4.5% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.5% of those under the age of 18 and none of those 65 and older. HistoryEglin Air Force Base was named on 24 Jun 1948 in honor of Lt Col Frederick Irving Eglin (1891-1937). First rated as a military aviator in 1917, he helped train other flyers during World War I. On 1 Jan 1937, while assigned to General Headquarters, Air Force, Langley Field, VA, Colonel Eglin was killed in the crash of his Northrop A-17 pursuit aircraft on a flight from Langley to Maxwell Field, AL. Pervious names of Eglin AFB were:
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Base Operating Units
Operational HistoryIn 1931, personnel of the Army Air Corps Tactical School (Maxwell Field, Ala.) while looking for a bombing and gunnery range, saw the potential of the sparsely populated forested areas surrounding Valparaiso and the vast expanse of the adjacent Gulf of Mexico. Local businessman and airplane buff James E. Plew saw the potential of a military payroll to boost the local areaโs depression-stricken economy. He leased the City of Valparaiso, the 137 acres (0.6 kmยฒ) on which an airport was established in 1933, and in 1934, Plew offered the U.S. government a donation of 1,460 acres (6 kmยฒ) contiguous for the bombing and gunnery base. This leasehold became the headquarters for the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base activated on June 14, 1935, under the command of Captain Arnold H. Rich. With the outbreak of war in Europe, a proving ground for aircraft armament was established at Eglin. The U.S. Forestry ceded to the War Department the Choctawhatchee National Forest. In 1941, the Air Corps Proving Ground was activated, and Eglin became the site for gunnery training for Army Air Forces fighter pilots, as well as a major testing center for aircraft, equipment, and tactics. In March 1942, the base served as one of the sites for Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to prepare his B-25 crews for their raid against Tokyo. A number of auxiliary fields were constructed on the Eglin reservation at this time, many of which are still in service in various roles, either in support of flight operations or special test activities. After the war, Eglin became a pioneer in developing the techniques for missile launching and handling; and the development of drone or pilotless aircraft. In 1947, a successful drone flight from Eglin to Washington, D.C. was conducted. In 1950, the Air Force Armament Center was established at Eglin. After the start of the Korean War, test teams moved to the combat theater for testing in actual combat. In 1957, the Air Force combined the Air Proving Ground Command and the Air Force Armament Center to form the Air Proving Ground Center. In 1968, the Air Proving Ground Center was redesignated the Armament Development and Test Center to centralize responsibility for research, development, test and evaluation, and initial acquisition of nonnuclear munitions for the Air Force. In 1975, the installation served as one of four main U.S. Vietnamese Refugee Processing Centers, where base personnel housed and processed more than 10,000 Southeast Asian refugees. Eglin again became an Air Force refugee resettlement center processing over 10,000 Cubans who fled to the U.S. between April and May of 1980. During a 1992 reorganization, the Air Force disestablished Eglin's parent major command, Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) and merged its functions with the former Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC). The newly created major command from this merger, Air Force Material Command (AFMC), remains Eglin's parent command to this day. In 1998, as part of the Air Forces' strategic plan to guide the service into the 21st century, the Air Force Development Test Center became the Air Force Materiel Command's Air Armament Center (AAC), responsible for development, acquisition, testing, and fielding all air-delivered weapons. National historic statusThere are two U.S. National Historic Landmark Districts with connections to the base: Camp Pinchot and Eglin Field. Famous nativesInfielder Jay Bell was born here. ClimateWarm, subtropical weather lasts almost nine months out of the year. The annual precipitation ranges from 25 to 60 inches (1,500 mm). Year-round, the average temperatures run: Jan - Mar: 60-69 High and 42-51 Low The area gets only 50 to 60 days of annual precipitation or more rainfall. There are few days without sunshine which allows year-round outdoor activities. Civil rocketryEglin Air Force Base is also a launch site for civil rockets of NASA. There are three launch pads: one at 29.6700 N, 85.3700 W at Cape San Blas; and two on Santa Rosa Island at 30.3800 N, 86.7400 W and 30.3800 N, 86.8170 W. Rockets launched here have included Arcas, Nike Cajun, Nike Apaches, Nike Iroquois, etc. [1] This site was formerly operated by the 4751st ADS with CIM-10 Bomarcs, inactivated in 1973. In the 1940s, captured V-1 and American copy Ford JB-2 Loon buzzbombs were launched out over the Gulf of Mexico from these sites. See also
References
This article incorporates text from Eglin Air Force Base, a public domain work of the United States Government.
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