US Navy Pinecastle Bombing Range Complex: Difference between revisions
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==History== | ==History== | ||
Take from a GAO report "Navy's Bombing Practices at the Pinecastle Electronic Warfare Range in the Ocala National Forest, Florida document B-178547: Published: Aug 30, 1973. Publicly Released: Aug 30, 1973." That document is online at http://www.gao.gov/products/B-178547 | Take from a GAO report "Navy's Bombing Practices at the Pinecastle Electronic Warfare Range in the Ocala National Forest, Florida document B-178547: Published: Aug 30, 1973. Publicly Released: Aug 30, 1973." That document is online at http://www.gao.gov/products/B-178547 and also Gizmodo article http://gizmodo.com/why-20-000-bombs-a-year-are-dropped-in-this-national-fo-1593856388. | ||
How did a bombing range get created in the middle of a national forest? In short: World War II. In the run up to the war, the War Department negotiated a temporary use permit for over 40,000 acres of land from the USDA, which administers our national forests. In the middle of the 430,000-acre forest, far away from people, an entire bombing and gunnery range took shape. A fake Japanese city and factory were even built as target practice. | |||
After the war, the military relinquished most of that land back to the USDA, but not all of it. If you look at Ocala National Forest from above, you can still see a crop circle-like scar in the forest. This is the Pinecastle Impact Range, and it sits on the 5,000 acres or so of the national forest that are still used by the Navy. | |||
Revision as of 12:15, 1 May 2017
Purpose
Did you hear a loud "boom!" You may have heard bombs being dropped during training at the Pinecastle training range. The Pinecastle Bombing Range Complex located in the Ocala National Forest near Astor, FL. The Pinecastle Impact (Bombing) Range is an un-fenced 5,760-acre area, with the eastern edge of the range located about 2 miles west of State Road 19 and the Camp Ocala campgrounds, and one-half mile west of the Farles Lake campground. F-18 jet fighters and other aircraft take off from Jacksonville Naval Air Station, fly low over the Forest, and drop their bombs in the middle 450 acres of the range.
Pinecastle is under the operation of Naval Air Station Jacksonville
in Jacksonville, FL.
Location
The Navy’s Pinecastle Range is located in the Ocala National Forest near Astor, Florida in southeast Marion County. Just over a military owned location referred to as Camp Ocala inside the junctions of Florida SR 40 and Florida SR 19 just west of Alexander Springs at the border of Volusia and Lake counties.
The Google map link is https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pinecastle+Bombing+Range,+Altoona,+FL+32702/@29.130636,-81.718836,92038m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88e7b25f7dc24eff:0x72fbf6c1ccb2276!8m2!3d29.1097084!4d-81.7185253?hl=en
Schedules
Visit https://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrse/installations/nas_jacksonville.html and look under "Schedule. Navy training schedules indicate that live and inert bombing will take place at the Pinecastle Range Complex located in the Ocala National Forest the following day and time:"
History
Take from a GAO report "Navy's Bombing Practices at the Pinecastle Electronic Warfare Range in the Ocala National Forest, Florida document B-178547: Published: Aug 30, 1973. Publicly Released: Aug 30, 1973." That document is online at http://www.gao.gov/products/B-178547 and also Gizmodo article http://gizmodo.com/why-20-000-bombs-a-year-are-dropped-in-this-national-fo-1593856388.
How did a bombing range get created in the middle of a national forest? In short: World War II. In the run up to the war, the War Department negotiated a temporary use permit for over 40,000 acres of land from the USDA, which administers our national forests. In the middle of the 430,000-acre forest, far away from people, an entire bombing and gunnery range took shape. A fake Japanese city and factory were even built as target practice.
After the war, the military relinquished most of that land back to the USDA, but not all of it. If you look at Ocala National Forest from above, you can still see a crop circle-like scar in the forest. This is the Pinecastle Impact Range, and it sits on the 5,000 acres or so of the national forest that are still used by the Navy.