Buckingham Air Field (Lee County, FL) — the full story
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Origins & build-out (1941–1942)
- 🗺️ Local Lee County leaders quietly assembled ranchland ~10 miles east of Fort Myers in 1941, then leased it to the War Department to spur jobs and defense buildup.
- 🚜 Construction began Feb–Mar 1942 on ~7,000 acres of swamp that had to be drained by new canals; price tag ≈ $10M (wartime dollars).
- 🛫 Initial layout: three 5,000-ft runways and a massive “eight-star” parking ramp; later expanded to six runways as the base scaled up.
- 🧱 Scale: ~483 buildings (hangars, barracks, mess halls, hospital complex). The first base commander famously called it “the ugliest field in the entire nation” during the muddy build phase.
Mission: Flexible Gunnery School (1942–1945)
- 🎯 Purpose: train aerial gunners to defend U.S. bombers—Buckingham became the first and the largest of the AAF flexible gunnery schools in Florida.
- 👨✈️ Throughput: roughly 48,000–50,000 gunners certified here (estimates vary by source).
- ✈️ Aircraft commonly on the ramp and ranges included AT-6 Texans and frontline bombers like B-17s and B-24s used for live-fire training profiles.
- 🕹️ Sim & ranges: trainees used the Waller Gunnery Trainer (multi-projector spherical-screen simulator), plus extensive moving-target, trap, and skeet ranges west of the field.
- 🧭 Footprint: at wartime peak the military reservation and outlying ranges consumed tens of thousands of acres across eastern Lee County—much of which is now conservation land (e.g., Wild Turkey Strand).
Wartime community & operations
- 🏙️ “City within a city”: own fire department, MPs, hospital larger than Fort Myers’ at the time, and full support services for thousands of personnel.
- 📅 Activation: July 1942 as Buckingham Field under Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command.
- 🛡️ By 1943, the school ran an intensive five-week curriculum and also trained flexible gunnery instructors.
Stand-down & immediate postwar (1945–1958)
- 🧯 The base closed September 30, 1945, as training needs collapsed after V-J Day.
- 🎓 Barracks briefly housed Edison College classrooms before being vacated in 1948.
- 🏘️ In the 1950s, developer Lehigh Corporation platted the Lehigh Acres street grid right across former runways and ramps; many strips were later broken up or left as concrete remnants.
Civil reuse & mosquito control era (1958–present)
- 🛩️ Conversion toward public/civil aviation started around 1958 as WWII infrastructure was repurposed.
- 🦟 In 1968 the Lee County Mosquito Control District (LCMCD) moved operations to the old ramp area (today’s private Buckingham Field, FAA: FL59). One original WWII building remains on the property.
- 🛫 Today’s FL59 specs: two broad concrete runways—14/32 = 4,046 ft and 6/24 = 2,726 ft—serving LCMCD’s fixed-wing and rotorcraft fleet and the adjacent Buckingham Air Park community (deeded access).
- 🏁 Portions of the former ramp have hosted autocross/racing events and community commemorations of the base’s WWII legacy.
Preservation, remnants & what you can still see
- 🌿 Much of the wider training estate has reverted to conservation areas—Conservation 20/20 preserves (e.g., Wild Turkey Strand) still reveal scattered foundations, range berms, and canal lines from the gunnery school.
- 🧭 Mapping nerd note: old aerials & charts show how the wartime “star” ramp morphed into later private strips (Lehigh Acres West) before consolidating into the current FL59 footprint.
- 🖼️ Museums and local groups keep the memory alive; you’ll see Waller Trainer footage and artifacts in documentaries and events.
Fast timeline
- 📍 1941 — Land assembled by local officials; lease to War Department
- 🏗️ Feb–Aug 1942 — Rapid build; activation in July 1942
- 🎯 1942–1945 — Flexible Gunnery School; ~48–50k gunners trained
- 🔕 Sept 30, 1945 — Base closed
- 🎓 1946–1948 — Edison College uses barracks; vacates
- 🗺️ 1950s — Lehigh Acres grid overlays much of the airfield
- 🛩️ 1958 — Start of civil reuse
- 🦟 1968 — LCMCD relocates; Buckingham Field (FL59) era
- 🌿 2000s–today — Preservation + active mosquito-control aviation hub
Why it mattered
- 🧠 Doctrine: Buckingham helped standardize flexible gunnery training at scale—combining live-fire ranges, airborne shoots behind real bombers, and cutting-edge simulation (Waller Trainer).
- 🧩 Regional impact: it turbocharged Lee County’s mid-century growth, then seeded later civil aviation and public-health aviation (mosquito control) that still operate from the site.
Quick FAQ (today)
- Who owns the airfield now? ➜ LCMCD (private-use, FAA FL59). ✔️
- Runway layout? ➜ 14/32 ~4,046 ft; 6/24 ~2,726 ft; both concrete and unusually wide (legacy ramp geometry). ✔️
- Any WWII structures left? ➜ Very few on the active field (one original building noted by LCMCD); remnants and archaeology scattered in nearby preserves. ✔️
Further rabbit holes (excellent sources)
- 📘 Concise base history with construction details & closure: Buckingham AAF (encyclopedic).
- 🦟 Operator’s site with present-day field info: LCMCD – Buckingham Airfield & Heliports.
- 🗺️ Deep photo-rich write-up on the field’s afterlife: Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields (Ft. Myers area).
- 📰 Regional history feature with aircraft types & totals: Gulfshore Business.
- 🎥 The simulator that made mass gunnery training possible: Waller Gunnery Trainer.
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