Tyndall AFB History facts Published Aug. 12, 2009 By The History office TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Tyndall will celebrate its 70th anniversary Dec. 7, 2011, on that date in 1941, the first contingent of troops arrived at the small gunnery school named Tyndall Field. It was the same day President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "a day that will live in infamy," the day Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Although this is recognized as its first day, Tyndall's history began much earlier. Concerned with the increasing possibility of war in Europe, President Roosevelt warned Congress in January 1939 that the Army Air Corps was "utterly inadequate" to defend the United States, and he asked Congress to expand the nation's air defenses. The Army's expansion program emphasized the construction of bombers, but building such a vast air fleet was only part of the massive job assigned to the Army Air Corps commanders. New airfields were required as well as facilities to train the pilots and maintenance personnel. Since the emphasis was on bombers, the Air Corps needed large numbers of aerial gunners. Every member of the bomber crew had a vital responsibility, but when the bomber was under attack by enemy aircraft, aerial gunners defended their airplane. The lives of the aircrew depended on these gunners, so schools were created to train them. 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.