Plew plants a prophetic mustard seed for Eglin AFB

Today, June 14, saw the beginning of the largest industry in Okaloosa County. 

On this day in 1937, a mustard seed of 14 enlisted men and a single officer was posted to the newly created Valparaiso Gunnery Range. 

The range’s new commander, Captain Arnold Rich, wouldn’t take command fof the tiny presence on the Emerald Coast for another two months. 

The piece of land where a massive Air Force Base is centered was little more than a dirt field in 1933, when James Plew leased it to the City of Valparaiso to create a small airstrip on the site. 

Plew, something of a business genius, realized that government money could bolster the already tiny, but flagging local economy – so long as he was willing to put up the resources for the initial investment. 

In that vein, Plew leased the original 137 acres for the airstrip – and then in 1934, leased more than 1500 acres to the Army Air Corps to use for gunnery practice in the years before the Second World War. 

RELATED: How did Eglin AFB get its name?

Almost immediately after it opened in 1939, the base shifted from a training mission to a (much more lucrative for locals) test-and-evaluation mission. The decision to change missions brought significant construction on base, encouraged and ensured by Northwest Florida’s new congressman, Crestview’s Bob Sikes. Sikes would ruminate in his comprehensive autobiography that the decision to build as many test and evaluation buildings on the new base was intentional – it placed the Department of War in the position where shrinking the military after the end of World War II would be especially painful to do at Eglin Air Force Base, because the construction would cost so much – a version of the sunken cost fallacy paid off for locals thanks to their shrewd-dealing congressman. 

Plew’s initial investment proved prescient – in 2025, the Air Force Base accounted for nearly 70 cents of every dollar made in Okaloosa County by businesses.

Additionally, the bases (including Hurlburt Field, Duke Field, the Naval EOD School, and the Army Ranger Camp) provide tens of thousands of jobs to local residents and active-duty personnel alike.