Carlstrom Field
Carlstrom field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps for WWI. I 1917 the Army established a series of training camps one of which was in Southwest Florida. The land was lease to the Army who constructed some 90 buildings on the land which was over 700 acres. This consisted of fourteen hangars that housed four to eight planes each, a hospital, and six barracks that held 175 men each. Dozens of wooden buildings served as headquarters, maintenance, and officers’ quarters. Enlisted men had to use tents.
In March, 1918 the 107th and 108th Aero Squadrons was transferred from Waco, Texas and assigned to the new Carlstrom Field.
It offered a six-week course and had a student capacity of 400.
With the end of WWI the air base rapidly demobilizes. The base then served as a testing center for various aircraft and weapons. In 1919 the final testing of s unmanned aircraft called the Kettering bug one of the earliest explains of a cruise missile.
In 1920 the primary polit program resumed in a small scale. However in 1932 the decision to centralize the program moving to San Antonio closing bases around the country as well as Florida.
The War Department has order a small caretaker crew to remain and dismantle the base. It remained closed until March 1941. With the start of WWII Carlstrom reopened and the 53rd flying training Detachment was activated.
Carlstrom had an very unusual layout with a compact group of small build in the center of a circle. I had square mile grass field severed as a runway.
After WWII the base was turned into a psychiatric hospital in 1947 and operated until 2002.
In 2011 the Desoto County Juvenile Correctional facility operated out of the area until 2014 when the state solid the property.
Lt Victor Carlström born April 12 1890 was a Swedish-American pioneer aviator He set air speed record and also set an flight altitude recorder missing it by 2,000 ft flight to 16,000 ft in a triplane. He died in a plane crash May 9 1917 while working with a student and his wings collapsed on his biplane.
12 мар 2023
