Qualla: Carlstrom Field https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Carlstrom Field https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field Carlstrom Field: Introduction https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. On private property alongside Highway 31 south of Arcadia, Florida, there is a concrete outline of a World War I biplane embedded in the ground. It stands about a foot tall and is full-scale. Over a century ago, flight cadets would fill it with water and then shoot at it from the air, watching for the splash of bullet strikes against the surface. That target is one of the few physical traces of Carlstrom Field, a sprawling military airfield that once trained hundreds of pursuit pilots for the skies over France and then vanished into the Florida scrubland almost as quickly as it appeared.

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Carlstrom Field: Ninety Buildings in Ninety Days https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Army had almost no trained combat pilots. An Army survey crew came to Southwest Florida searching for flat land, clear skies, and year-round flying weather, and they found it six miles southeast of Arcadia. Construction bega...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-ninety-buildings-in-ninety-days.mp3 0:06 2 full Carlstrom Field: Jennys in Wooden Crates https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Carlstrom served as an advanced school for pursuit pilots, offering an intensive six-week course with capacity for 400 students. Most of the training aircraft were Curtiss JN-4 Jennys, the ubiquitous biplane trainer of the war, but they did not fly in from Texas. They arrived dis...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-jennys-in-wooden-crates.mp3 0:06 3 full Carlstrom Field: Twenty-Three Graves in Arcadia https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Flight training in 1918 was extraordinarily dangerous. The Curtiss Jenny was forgiving by the standards of the day, but engine failures, mid-air collisions, and disorientation killed cadets regularly. Among those who trained at Carlstrom and the surrounding fields were Royal Air ...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-twenty-three-graves-in-arcadia.mp3 0:06 4 full Carlstrom Field: Armistice and Abandonment https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. When World War I ended suddenly on November 11, 1918, Carlstrom Field's future became uncertain overnight. Local officials argued that the outstanding combat record of Carlstrom-trained pilots in Europe and the area's ideal flying weather justified keeping the base open. It did n...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-armistice-and-abandonment.mp3 0:06 5 full Carlstrom Field: What the Concrete Remembers https://qualla.com/carlstrom-field/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. Today, two of the original six hangars still stand, along with the mess hall, band shell, canteen, administration building, water and sewage plants, and two training buildings. The administration building carries a plaque placed during a 1992 refurbishment by the state of Florida...

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]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/h/v/f/carlstrom-field-wp/dhvf-carlstrom-field-what-the-concrete-remembers.mp3 0:06 6 full