DALE MABRY FIELD
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Coinseekers
N 30° 26.495 W 084° 20.312
16R E 755593 N 3370727
Located at the SE Corner of the Tallahassee Community College Parking Lot located at W. Pensacola St and Appleyard Dr. Tallahassee.
Waymark Code: WM6Y5T
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 08/04/2009
Views: 16
In October 1940, hundreds of laborers began clearing swampland for temporary quarters for Dale Mabry Army Air Base, named in honor of a young Tallahassee dirigible pilot who died in 1922 after serving in World War I. In 1941, America entered World War II. The need for a place to train pilots prompted the federal government to set a 90-day completion deadline. Eventually, the base became a nearly self-sufficient city, with several runways, barracks, officers’ quarters, mess hall, hangers, a hospital, a church and a bowling alley. Some sections of the base’s asphalt runway are still visible, as are several concrete tie-down pads. Over 8,000 pilots from Europe, China and the United States trained here in P-39s, P-40s, P-47s and P-51s. This marker is at the edge of the NW/SE runway near the point where planes took off or landed. Over a dozen pilots died in accidents while learning how to fire at targets such as a giant, plywood “bull’s eye” at Alligator Point to the south. During 1943, 79,000 family members came to Tallahassee, then a town of 16,000, to visit pilots-in-training. The base was deactivated in 1945 and served as a commercial airport until 1961, when Tallahassee Regional Airport opened.
Marker Number: F- 444
Date: 2001
County: Leon
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: TALLAHASSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Website: Not listed
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