Tyndall AFB History facts 2 Published Sept. 8, 2009 By Mr. Ted Roberts 325th Fighter Wing Historian TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- On Dec. 21, 1940, a site board met with U.S. Senator Claude Pepper, and city and county officials in Panama City. They determined that Flexible Gunnery School No. 9 would be located 12 miles southeast of Panama City on East Peninsula. By the end of 1941, sufficient property descriptions had been obtained by the Army to enable a Declaration of Taking to be filed with the Federal Court in Pensacola. A court order of possession for all unoccupied areas was issued on May 7, 1941, allowing construction to start on the project site. All property owners were to be evacuated from East Peninsula by July 7, 1941. A small community known as Redfish Point was erased from the reservation, however, two cemeteries still remain, along with the former built by Maj. Frank Wood, who had moved into the area in the 1920's. Major Wood's house was converted into the present Pelican Point Golf Course clubhouse. A second structure remained in the Wood Manor housing area until it was torn down earlier this decade. Major Wood was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I. Not only was he a war veteran, but Major Wood also witnessed the birth of the airplane. Present at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903, he helped the Wright brothers push their airplane on its historic takeoff. On May 6, 1941, Army and local dignitaries held an official ground breaking for the gunnery school. Then Panama City Mayor, H.G. Fannin, dug the first spadefull of sand, and Col. Warren A. Maxwell, who would later become Tyndall Field's first commander, wielded the first axe on a stubborn palmetto plant, so common on East Peninsula.