Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Florida: Western Pensacola

Florida, Western Pensacola area

Corry Field (1^st location) / City Field (added 2/23/04) - Corry Field NAAS (2^nd location) (revised 8/17/07)

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Corry Field (1^st location) / City Field, Pensacola, FL

30.45 North / 87.22 West (Southwest of Pensacola Regional Airport, FL)

"Old Corry" Field, as depicted just north of Pensacola on the 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

Corry Field was the first auxiliary field established by the Navy

to support flight training operations at the Pensacola Flight School.

In 1922, a site north of Pensacola was obtained from the Escambia County Commission on a no-cost, five-year lease.

The airfield constructed at this site was named Corry Field in honor of LCDR William M. Corry,

who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his attempt to rescue a fellow crew member from a burning aircraft.

At the end of the lease period the site was deemed too small,

and a new & larger site - located three miles north of NAS Pensacola -

was presented to the Navy by the County Commission.

The Corry Field name was applied to this new site (which opened for flight training in 1927),

and the older field became an outlying field (OLF) known as Old Corry Field.

The 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)

depicted both "New Corry Field" (west of downtown Pensacola)

as well as an "Old Corry Field" (along the northern edge of the town).

"City Field" was still depicted on a 1939 map of NAS Pensacola & its satellite fields (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel).

A 12/2/40 USDA aerial view of City Field OLF,

from the Digital Library Center / University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel).

"This also shows you how simple the early airfields were for the Navy...

a road (present-day Davis Highway) cuts through the middle of the field.

Apparently the Navy was still using this OLF because there appear to be two planes in the eastern portion of the field (near the white circle)."

It has not been determined how much longer the City Field was used by the Navy.

It was apparently abandoned at some point between 1940-45,

as did not appear to be depicted on the 1945 Mobile Sectional Chart (courtesy of John Voss).

A 1/4/51 USDA aerial view of the site of the former City Field OLF,

from the Digital Library Center / University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel).

"A sub-division has already been built on a portion of the field."

A 1999 USGS aerial photo of the site of City Field,

which has been annotated by Brian Rehwinkel to show present-day landmarks.

In the words of Brian Rehwinkel, "It may be difficult to see where the airfield used to be,

but there are still landmarks that will help identify the site from the air.

The western edge of the field was the railroad tracks on the left side of the photo.

The northern portion of the field is where the interchange for Interstate 110 is now located (at the top of the photo).

The eastern edge of the field was where today's 9^th Avenue is located.

In the photo, 9^th Avenue is located just to the right of Davis Highway

(the curved road that went through the middle of the field).

Today, Davis has been divided (north & south) at the point it used to go through City Field.

If you visited this site today,

you would have no idea that this was once the site of one of the earliest (if not the earliest)

auxiliary training fields for the U.S. Navy!"

See also: http://www.pafw.com/corry.htm

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Corry Field Naval Auxiliary Air Station (2^nd location), Myrtle Grove, FL

30.4 North / 87.29 West (West of Pensacola NAS, FL)

"Corry" Field, as depicted west of Pensacola on the 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

The location of "New Corry Field", as depicted on the 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

An aerial view looking northeast at "New Corry Field", from the 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

The "New" Corry Field was built in 1927 to the west of Pensacola to support flight operations at Pensacola NAS,

to replace the original Corry Field (north of Pensacola),

which had become too small to adequately support Navy flight training operations.

The 1934 Navy Aviation Chart V-242 (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)

depicted both "New Corry Field" (west of downtown Pensacola)

as well as an "Old Corry Field" (along the northern edge of the town).

"New Corry Field" was described as consisting of a 6,243' x 3,970' sandy loam field.

In the years preceding WW2,

primary flight training, fighter training & multi-engine training was conducted at Corry Field.

A section of a 1939 map of NAS Pensacola & its satellite fields (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel),

depicting both Corry Field & "Corry Jr", a smaller field adjacent to the south side of Corry Field.

During WW2, Corry had an outlying field, Pensacola Field #8, at Muscogee, AL.

No trace remains of this outlying field.

A WW2-era National Archives aerial view of Corry Field.

"Corry (Navy)", as depicted on the February 1945 Mobile Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

By the end of WW2, Corry Field provided the basic instrument portion

of primary training in SNJ, SNB, and T-28 aircraft.

This small complex had an extremely dense runway layout,

with at eight paved runways in two adjacent intersecting groups.

The longest runway was 4,500'.

Corry Field was decommissioned as a NAAS at the end of WW2,

but remained an active training field.

A 1955 USN photo of an SNJ Texan over Corry Field (courtesy of John Voss).

A 1955 USN photo of newly arrived T-28B Trojans at Corry Field, with SNJ Texans behind them (courtesy of John Voss).

An SNJ at Corry in the 1950s, modified into a taxi trainer,

with a temporary nosewheel intended to prevent prop strikes by students (National Archives photo).

Corry Field was decommissioned as a NAAS at the end of WW2,

but remained an active training field until its closure in 1958.

A 1/3/58 USDA aerial view of Corry Field,

from the Digital Library Center / University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel).

The photo was taken less than a year before the field ceased flight operations permanently,

but the ramps were still filled with over a hundred aircraft.

A close-up of the large number of aircraft on Corry's ramp, from the 1/3/58 USDA aerial view of Corry Field,

from the Digital Library Center / University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries (courtesy of Brian Rehwinkel).

Corry Field was closed as an active training airfield in 1958.

Corry Field was listed as closed on the 1964 Mobile Sectional Chart (courtesy of John Voss).

As seen in the 1999 USGS aerial photo,

the northeastern portion former NAAS is now the site of the Naval Technical Training Center, Corry Station.

The hangars & other buildings are still in use, although in a highly modified form.

The southwest portion of the former airfield has been reused as the site of the Naval Hospital, Pensacola,

while the southeast portion has become the site of the Navy Exchange shopping Mall.

As seen in the 2004 USGS aerial photo, significant portions of at least 8 runways are still intact at the site of the former Corry Field.

A January 2006 photo by Paul Freeman of the sign at the gate for the “Center for Information Dominance, Corry Station”,

which now occupies the northeastern portion of the former airfield.

A January 2006 photo by Paul Freeman looking northeast along a former runway at Corry Field,

which is still used as a helipad for the adjacent Naval Hospital (note the windsock).

A circa 2006-2007 aerial view looking north at the former operations building & control tower at Corry Field.

A circa 2006-2007 aerial view looking east at 2 of the WW2-era hangars at Corry Field,

with a modern building in between them (which was evidently added at some point between 1958-99).