Dale Mabry Field is where men have trained and airplanes stay. Men have come and go in this airfield for years. Men come from various locations in America to train to become a pilot for World War Two against the axis. Some come with experience, most come with little to no experience. The planes come and go day in and day out. The pilots come and go day in and day out. The men that train at this little airstrip go to war to fight for our country of America.
The men that were training on this airfield probably would never guess that a college would be built literally footsteps away from where they stayed and trained. Its crazy to think that the campus of TCC has a view of an airfield that contributed to World WAR Two. When you walk near where the airfield use to be you can almost hear the air planes take flight, and if you look up you might even see the pilots in training in the blue sky going in and out of the clouds. It’s a mind blowing thing to think about that so many men have put in so many hours on land that you are standing on to make sure we stayed free and to keep America from being the losers in the second World War.
People have to marvel at the history that is footsteps away from them each day they step foot on the campus. The airfield was home to many pilots in training, they would eat breath and sleep on the airfield. Then when their training was complete they would go out to war against the evil axis power fueled by Hitler’s ideals. The airfield wasn’t always just the training center for pilots going to war. It was also home to Tallahassee’s regional airport after the War was over. These came years after World War Two. So not only was it an airfield for pilots to train, it would bring in people to the city. It makes you wonder, did the pilots that trained on this field become pilots for the airlines that would later come into the airfield? That’s the mystery to the airfield that you can only wonder about.
The history is diverse and mysterious. When I gaze on to the field I always have wonder in my eye to say to my self, what were the men thinking? So many questions to ask the men that were once called the airstrip their home, like were they really prepared to go to war? What was it like to come from your home to completely change your life and become a pilot? What was it like to be in the air for the first time? There are so many questions to be asked, but none will be answered. But that’s the thing that keeps the magic withheld in the airfield for me, I love the wonderment of it, it makes me think and ponder to what it was like all those years ago.
Comment: Good start - need more research to tell a story that hasn't been told before.
