Avon Park Air Force Range

The Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) or MacDill Air Force Base Auxiliary Field, is a United States Air Force bombing range and air-ground training complex in the U.S. state of Florida located east of the city of Avon Park.

Overview
Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) consists of approximately 106,000 acres of which about 82,000 acres are open to the public for recreation. APAFR includes Avon Park Air Force Auxiliary Field, also known as MacDill Air Force Base Auxiliary Field, which consists of an 8,000 foot main runway, an operational control tower, an aircraft rescue and firefighting facility, and limited ramp and hangar facilities. There are no published instrument approach procedures and the airfield is limited to Visual Flight Rule (VFR) operations only.

APAFR serves as the primary training range for Homestead Air Reserve Base, and also is an important range for Patrick, MacDill, and Moody Air Force Bases, routinely hosting numerous squadron/unit level deployments from across the country. Training requirements include low level flights, night vision training, and the firing of many different types of weaponry across the full spectrum of Air Force assets.

Due to deferred airfield maintenance issues, the airfield is currently closed to all flight operations other than light general aviation aircraft used by APAFR personnel for range monitoring issues and to military jet or rotary-wing aircraft experiencing in-flight emergencies on or in the vicinity of the Avon Park Military Operations Area (Avon Park MOA) for which an emergency divert to MacDill AFB is not practical.

Units
The host unit for APAFR is the Deployed Unit Complex (DUC), 23d Wing, Detachment 1, which is a unit of the 23d Wing (23 WG), an Air Combat Command (ACC) composite fighter and rescue wing located at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.

In addition to the Avon Park Air Force Range, Det 1 also oversees the Deployed Unit Complex (DUC), a flight line facility at nearby MacDill AFB for transient military flight crews, maintenance crews and aircraft utilizing APAFR. This permits visiting squadrons to have ready access to APAFR while concurrently taking advantage of the more robust billeting, messing and maintenance support capabilities at MacDill AFB. This combination of facilities provides extensive, diversified and convenient training airspace and ranges with unique training capabilities for military air, ground and air-to-ground training. The Florida Army National Guard also maintains a ground support facility at APAFR.

World War II
The facility was a pre-war civil airport taken over by the United States Army Air Forces in September 1942. Assigned to III Bomber Command, Third Air Force, the airport was designated as Avon Park Army Air Field and initially was assigned as a sub-base of MacDill Field, near Tampa. Upon activation, the 41st Aviation Squadron was assigned with a mission to convert the civil airport into a military airfield.

In addition to the airport, the Air Force acquired a total of 218,883.88 acres nearby for a large bombing and gunnery range. Acquisition of 111,165 acres in February 1943 in Okeechobee County increased the site to approximately 352 square miles of territory. A spur of the Atlantic Southern Railroad served the base, crossing Arbuckle Creek at what is now called the burned out bridge, and brought in about 300 rail cars a month. Arbuckle Lake is still called Submarine Lake by some because of the 32-foot replica of a Japanese submarine that was used for torpedo run training.

Avon Park AAF was placed under the command of the 380th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron on 1 January 1943. The military population peaked at 10,000, a dramatic contrast with the 3,000 population of Avon Park in 1942. In addition, these figures do not include support civilians, military families, nor staff and students at the civilian Lodwick Field Lodwick Military Aviation Academy in Avon Park, used by Training Command as a basic flying training school. With the resultant housing shortage, military personnel took up residence in resort facilities and towns as far away as Lake Wales and Wauchula. The Pinecrest Lakes Club near Avon Park, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, made sixty double rooms available to officers and their families. Likewise, these great numbers of military personnel led to sometimes contentious relations with the town fathers. Records show that servicemen were sometimes charged higher prices than those paid by locals. Accordingly, base commanders were known to restrict military traffic to town in an effort to stimulate economic pressure on the shopkeepers.

The mission of Avon Park was a training base for B-26 Marauder medium bomber aircrews training at the base as well as the main base at MacDill, which used the range for air to ground bombing training. The trainees would drop bombs ranging in size from 15 lb practice bombs to 2000 lb. demolition bombs containing 2 ton of high explosives. Targets at the Avon Park Range included a mock 555-acre town on the shore of Lake Arbuckle, a large floating water target on Lake Kissimmee, and an eight-mile railroad bombardment target. In 1943, the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics from Orlando Army Airfield constructed a special incendiary target for use.

In addition to the bomber training, Aircrews from the field flew Antisubmarine patrols over both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts as part of their training mission.

In November 1943 Avon Park Army Airfield stood up as an independent Third Air Force base. The reason was that II Bomber Command transferred the heavy bomber replacement aircrew training mission to Third Air Force when it assumed the B-29 Superfortress training mission. The overflow at MacDill Field led to the base becoming a fully equipped field. The 88th Bombardment Group (Heavy), was moved from Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington, to provide replacement aircrew and pilot transition training in B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber combat aircraft. Avon Park provided replacement aircrews training in bombing and gunnery skills. B-17s assigned to the base had an "A" for Avon next to the crew door, by May 1945 the base code was also added to the tail. Avon Park AAF had twenty-six thousand M1A1 practice bombs stored in an open area on 3 July 1945.

Major Units Assigned

 * 336th Bombardment Group (Medium), 13 December 1942-11 October 1943 (B-26 OTU)
 * 397th Bombardment Group (Medium), 12 October 1943-1 November 1943


 * 88th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9 November 1943-1 May 1944 (B-17 OTU)
 * Re-designated: Avon Park Replacement Training Unit (Heavy Bombardment), 1 May 1944-30 September 1945

Postwar use
Avon Park Army Airfield went on inactive status in September 1945 and was again assigned to MacDill Field in a caretaker status. Jurisdiction was transferred to Air Technical Service Command (ATSC), whose mission was the transfer of any useful military equipment to other bases around the country. Unlike most wartime facilities that were closed, Avon Park was retained by the Air Force and not transferred to the War Assets Administration (WAA) for disposal.

On May 25, 1946, a three-year-old boy was killed by a fuze that a fisherman found in Arbuckle Creek. Then, on November 9, 1946, another child died and four others received injuries from a fuze found under a vacant house located in Avon Park. The fuze was described by a witness to be approximately 18-inches long without a propeller and containing marble-like materials.

The facility was subsequently transferred by the Army to the new United States Air Force in September 1947. In 1949, Avon Park was reactivated by Strategic Air Command (then the major command assigned to MacDill) and renamed Avon Park Air Force Base. At this time a major improvement program was begun to include storm drainage, sanitary sewer, electrical and water systems, roads, bridges, runways, fencing and over 500 buildings. These structures included chapels, administration buildings, dormitories/barracks, recreation facilities, airfield and main base fire stations, mess halls, residences for married personnel, and other miscellaneous structures. At its height, the base spread across 218000 acre.

In 1956, the site was renamed Avon Park Air Force Range and in 1957 the Florida Avon Park Correctional Institution was established on the former base and correctional staff man the main gate of the facility. The Air Force, retained control of the range facility, which it maintains to the present day.

Current status
Over the succeeding years the Air Force declared much of the land surplus and disposed of it. With successive divestitures of real property and reductions in permanent party military, civil service and contractor personnel assigned to APAFR, many of the facilities constructed during the 1950s have been turned over to the State of Florida. The state's Department of Corrections operates the Avon Park Correctional Institution (APCI) on site for adult male offenders utilizing former USAF dormitory/barracks facilities, while the Department of Juvenile Justice operates the Avon Park Youth Academy for low to moderate risk juvenile offenders/delinquents utilizing former base housing. The last major divestment in 1983 brought the range to its current size.

Other facilities at APAFR that continue to be maintained by USAF and that are outside the core operational mission include morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) facilities, primarily camping, boating and hunting facilities for active and retired military personnel. Multiple military functions occur at the range, and numerous WWII period structures remain and some continue in use by range personnel. Public access to the Avon Park AFR is temporarily suspended due to the heightened security requirements for Department of Defense installations.

In April 1993, the Florida Highlands Chapter of the Air Force Association erected a three-blade propeller memorial next to the former base headquarters building in tribute to the many military personnel to have served at this facility.