Tyndall History

  • Published
  • By Ted Roberts
  • 325th Fighter Wing Historian
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Because of the various training programs being conducted at Tyndall, a wide assortment of aircraft were assigned to the base in the early 1950s. Attrition had reduced the number of F-51s, but B-25, B-26, C-45, C-47, T-6 and F-80 aircraft still remained on hand to support the Aircraft Controllers School.

Furthermore, newer T-28, T-33, F-86, F-89 and F-94 aircraft required additional landing facilities and there was some discussion of reopening the former Apalachicola Army airbase, which had been a sub-unit of Tyndall during World War II. Instead, construction of an additional runway at Tyndall was begun in early 1950 to handle the increased activity.

Interestingly, Tyndall's runways always had trouble with overcrowding of a different sort. Wild animals of all kinds, including deer and alligators, made life for aircrew members and aircraft mechanics alike a little more interesting. Charles E. Breesee, a photographic laboratory employee at Tyndall in 1946, recalled alligators were a particular menace. "On cool mornings, alligators would crawl out of the swamp and sun themselves on the warm runway," Mr. Breesee said. "Then, pilots and mechanics would have to haul them off by their tails before any planes could take off."