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Eglin Child Neglect Investigation Results in Federal Guilty Plea

An Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to felony child neglect involving a child living on Eglin Air Force Base and could face up to five years in federal prison.

An Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to felony child neglect after a welfare investigation on Eglin Air Force Base led investigators to rescue a child from her home in 2023. Devon Mae Witryk faces up to five years in federal prison, with sentencing scheduled for Sept. 17 in Pensacola.

This little-known land transfer revolutionized the Emerald Coast forever!

Illustrated banner for 'The Transfer of the Choctawhatchee National Forest' showing a WWII-era U.S. Army airplane on an airfield with two men conversing nearby.

On June 27, 1940, over 340,000 acres of the Choctawhatchee National Forest were officially transferred from the Department of the Interior to the War Department. This historic move was driven by President Franklin Roosevelt’s conviction that the U.S. needed to prepare for war, primarily in response to Axis aggression and the U.S. embargo on Japan. This single action fundamentally transformed the local economy and environment around Choctawhatchee Bay, shifting it from a rustic, subsistence living to a hub that enabled the space age and the American Defense Industry. The land soon became the Valparaiso Gunnery Range, the precursor to a massive military-industrial-research complex that brought billions of dollars and a storm of new residents to the Emerald Shores.

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