Eglin Air Force Base and the Doolittle Raiders

Just north and west of Destin's beaches sprawls one of the largest military installations in the world, Eglin Air Force Base, and its story is woven into the biggest moments of American air power. It began in the year nineteen thirty five as the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base, and was renamed in nineteen thirty seven to honor Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Eglin. In the year nineteen forty, the War Department expanded it by taking in more than three hundred and forty thousand acres of the Choctawhatchee National Forest, turning the pine woods into a vast proving ground for aircraft weapons.

Then, in March of the year nineteen forty two, this base became a training ground for one of the war's boldest missions. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle brought his crews here to practice something that seemed impossible, launching heavy B Twenty Five bombers off the short deck of an aircraft carrier for a surprise raid on Tokyo. Eglin is also home to the McKinley Climatic Laboratory, a giant refrigerated hangar where aircraft are tested in artificial blizzards, deserts, and monsoons, with the first tests beginning in the year nineteen forty seven.

So while Destin's harbor built its name on fish, the forests just inland quietly helped shape the modern Air Force.