Today’s Emerald Coast History Article is brought to you by the folks at Okaloosa Gas District.
On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy visited Eglin Air Force Base to review the installation’s capabilities.
Kennedy was not the first president to visit Eglin – that was Harry Truman.
Kennedy visited the base, along with Congressman Bob Sikes of Crestview, to view a demonstration of the firepower special operators were using in the buildup of the United States for the Vietnam War from the Special Air Warfare Center, then stationed at Eglin.
Kennedy, according to the Air and Space Forces Magazine issued at the time, said that Kennedy “saw demonstrations from B-26 light bombers, C-47 and C-46 transports, L-28 and T-28 aircraft fitted for bush missions.”
“I know that all of you are connected with this base, and you’re either the children or the wives of people who work here, flyers, and those who help man these planes. And I would like to express my very great thanks on behalf of all of us to all of you,” Kennedy said in an address to the personnel and families of Eglin, “I don’t think that anyone could have watched the flying that we’ve seen today and the commitment to this country demonstrated by those who manned these airplanes and service them without going back home a good deal happier we want to thank you all. I hope that all Americans realize what you are doing.”
The man he travelled with on that day, Congressman Bob Sikes, may be the single man most responsible for the reality the Panhandle has today. Sikes, as a young congressman in the 1940s, was able to secure base infrastructure for the community during the Second World War, with an eye to the economic future of the district.
In his autobiography, a 700+ tome, Sikes noted that “with a substantial number of our military bases located in Florida, it would not hurt to have a spokesman in position to watch the flow of defense spending. For Example, not long after my new assignment was announced, plans to close Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City were cancelled. Some claimed to see a coincidence, which I neither confirmed nor denied.”
Today, Okaloosa County alone earns $9.2 Billion from Eglin Air Force Base.
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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