Intermission (6) – Fort MacDill, Tampa/St. Pete, FL

(Tribune News Service) — John Murphy was shocked by his first glimpse of MacDill Field.

It was in late 1940, about four months before MacDill, formally known as Southeast Airbase, officially was activated on April 16, 1941. It was named in honor of Col. Leslie MacDill, a World War I veteran and aviation pioneer who died in a plane crash.

“When I got into the area the runway was still under construction, and so was the housing,” Murphy says. “My first quarters was in a tent in a place called Boomtown, where I slept in an Army cot. The tent was surrounded by palmetto branches, and when the wind blew, it sounded like rattlesnakes.”

Marching at MacDill

Murphy, now 95 and living in Biloxi, Mississippi, was among the first to arrive at the base as it was carved from the scrub in the days before the U.S. entered World War II. Today, MacDill Air Force Base is celebrating its 75th anniversary.

A lot has changed over the years. MacDill went from training crews to fly B-17 Flying Fortress and B-26 Marauder bombers to B-29 Superfortresses, B-47 Stratojets and F-84, F-4 and F-16 fighters. It now is home to two wings that fly KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jets.

MacDill, aerial view

The base has played a key role in U.S. military actions from World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the ongoing fight against jihadis in the Middle East and elsewhere.

In 1961, MacDill became home of U.S. Strike Command, which became U.S. Readiness Command and later, in 1987, U.S. Special Operations Command. Socom provides trained and equipped commandos and synchronizes the global war on terrorism.

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WWII bomb on St. Pete’s beach

ST. PETERSBURG (Tribune News Service) — A World War II era bomb that washed up on St. Pete Beach over the weekend could have been lurking beneath shallow coastal sand for years, a local military expert said.

At about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, a 4-foot cylinder M122 Photoflash Bomb, which appeared to have been submerged for some time, was found on the beach near the 22nd Avenue access point. The beach and 20 nearby homes were evacuated as Pinellas County deputies worked with a MacDill Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team to destroy the device.

Frank Correa, the historian for Largo’s Armed Forces History Museum, said finds like this are to be expected given the Tampa Bay region’s history with the war. Combat pilots trained at Drew Army Airfield, known today as Tampa International Airport, and MacDill Air Force Base, conducting training missions over the Gulf of Mexico.

Florida was home to several training sites during the war, in fact, and Correa said the photoflash bomb was likely dropped over the gulf and during the seven decades since then made its way inland.

“There’s no telling, that piece might have been here in the beach here for years,” he said.

WWII bomb

A lot of duds were dropped, likely without the pilots even realizing it, Correa said. Hurricanes and other storms could have carried the unexploded bombs closer to shore over the years.

“Back then they didn’t recover any of that stuff,” he said.

Military aircraft came to MacDill in 1940 and pilots began dropping dummy bombs filled with sand for target practice, said Denny Cole, a history buff and a retired Air Force master sergeant. Soon afterward, though, they began using lethal weapons for practice in areas including today’s Fort DeSoto Park.

The photoflash bomb is just the latest aging explosive to turn up on Pinellas County shores recently. In October, an inert grenade was found by a man walking with a metal detector about 20 feet from the shore near the Sirata Beach Resort, 5300 Gulf Blvd.

Bomb exploded on site.

Handling these explosives requires a joint effort among local law enforcement agencies, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda said. The Sheriff’s Office received the initial call Sunday and contacted the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office for help from its bomb squad.

A berm was fashioned to protect the closest of three nearby sea turtle nests.

Barreda said the sheriff’s office gets calls from time to time about old military ordnance kept as souvenirs that turns up in basements, attics and garages.

“If there’s any question about what the nature of the device might be, the recommendation is to contact law enforcement,” Barreda said.

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©2015 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.)

Click on images to enlarge.

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Military Training Humor – 

Courtesy of: https://muscleheaded.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Joseph Bohrer – Detroit, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-17 navigator

James Bradford – Toronto, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, pilot

For them all! !! Click to enlarge

Walter “Ed” Dial – Aztec, NM; US Army Air Corps, PTO

Edward Gardner – Pompano, FL; US Navy, WWII, USS Niblack

Walter Hanson – Lauderdale-By-the-Sea, FL; US Merchant Marine, WWII

Edward Martini – Pompano, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 188th/11th Airborne Div.

John Munn – St. Augustine, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Korea, Captain, pilot

John Newlan – Palm Beach, FL; USMC, Korea, demolitions

George Ory – Baker, LA; US Army, WWII, ETO, Quartermaster Corps

Edward Shaw – Stoneboro, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Korea

Michael Visconti – Coconut Creek, FL; US Navy, WWII, USS Wisconsin

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