LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
In January 2010, Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis combined installation support functions to form Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Today, JBLE is home to more than 18,000 Air Force and Army personnel accomplishing a variety of mission sets, including transportation, fighter operations and training.
However, it wasn't long ago that aircraft from Langley dropped bombs on its northern neighbor.
No, it was not a forgotten second civil war or fraternal disagreement. From 1936 to 1944, the Army Air Corps, and later, Army Air Forces, used Fort Eustis as a bombing range for units assigned to Langley Field's AAF Antisubmarine Command.
According to the Fort Eustis Historical and Archaeological Association, Fort Eustis was transferred to Langley Field in September 1936. Two years later, Mulberry Island became a sub-post of Langley, and the bombing runs began. While Langley relinquished control of the island in January 1941, the AAF continued to use the ranges to train bombers in attacking the German Kriegsmarine's U-Boats, or submarines.
As World War II progressed, the AAF used the ranges less often. However, several bombing accidents marred populated sections of Eustis. The Fort Eustis WWII diary, dated Nov. 15, 1945, indicates that at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1944, bombers dropped 20 100-lb. bombs on Mulberry Island. Of these, ten exploded near an ammunition storage depot, while the remaining ten exploded near the Dozer family farm outside the post.
Six days later, at 6:50 p.m., three 100-lb. bombs, released accidentally from a Langley-based plane, impacted Barracks T418, near Bldg. 512, and close to the Tactical Motor Pool.
On March 17 of that year, demolition bombs, ranging from 100 to 1,000 lbs., caused minor damage to several buildings on the post. In the wake of this incident, Fort Eustis post commander Col. A.C. Gardner contacted Col. Eugene A. Lohman, Langley Field's commanding officer, to ask the AAF to cease the bombing runs. Lohman complied, and bombing at Fort Eustis ended in late 1944.
In addition to Mulberry Island, Langley also had ranges at Langley, bombing ranges at nearby Plum Tree Island, which also served as an aerial gunnery range, and four islands off Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. In 1942, the Commonwealth of Virginia secured a lease to use the marshlands of the Eastern Shore, effectively ending bombing there.
In 2012, the 733rd Mission Support Group's restoration program will complete a survey of the munitions sites on Fort Eustis, with plans to clean up the remains of target practices from more than 70 years ago.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Dick Ivy, whose story from the 1997 Historical Series of Fort Eustis Historical and Archaeological Association contributed to this article.