Escambia County Celebrates NOLF-8 Land Exchange

April 2, 2019

Escambia County marked the land transfer and future of Naval Outlying Landing Field Site 8 with a ceremony on Monday in Beulah.

County residents received approximately 635 acres of prime property to utilize for improvements in the heart of the growing Beulah community while the Navy received a new training field in Santa Rosa County.

The National Defense Authorization Act in 2015 that authorize the land exchange. In 2016, the land exchange agreement was formalized with the intention to transfer the property at NOLF Site 8 to Escambia County, in exchange for a suitable replacement.

Escambia County purchased land in Santa Rosa County and began construction in 2016 on what is now called OLF-X. Naval Facilities Southeast Region in Jacksonville, Navy Installations Command and Whiting Field coordinated with Escambia County to ensure requirements for the training mission at NAS Whiting Field were met for the new outlying field. On January 29, the deeds were exchanged, finalizing the transfer. NAS Whiting Field opened Naval Outlying Landing Field-X for flight training operations on January 30.

NOLF Site 8 was originally constructed in 1940 as an auxiliary airfield for Pensacola NAS. At approximately 635 acres, Site 8, along with NOLFs Spencer and Pace, was one of the oldest NOLFs still in use until the land transfer with Escambia County in 2019.

Site 8 was initially used as a fixed wing training field. The field had undergone several changes and was temporarily closed in the mid to late 1950s. In 1964, the NOLF was brought back into service as an NOLF to support NAS Whiting Field’s rotary-pilot training mission. The NOLF was used as a primary tactical training asset by TRAWING 5. The field provided facilities to support training in rotary tactics, confined area landings, platform landings, external loads missions, hot refueling and was tentatively studied to support night vision training.

Comments

6 Responses to “Escambia County Celebrates NOLF-8 Land Exchange”

  1. Jeff on April 5th, 2019 8:47 am

    John….. Navy Federal is not the problem…..the piss poor county planning for it is/was the problem

  2. JOHN on April 4th, 2019 2:47 pm

    Why do you people complain about Navy Federal? Do you just not want jobs here? What about the excessive amounts of tourist congesting our roads? What about the environmental impact from all the high rise condos on the beach? No, it’s always about evil no good Navy Federal.

  3. mel on April 4th, 2019 8:22 am

    I see a civic center, motels, restaurants and me moving somewhere else..

  4. Mike J. on April 3rd, 2019 8:49 am

    Navy Federal Credit Union will get a big chunk of this field. The rest will be shopping and industry brining more traffic to the 7k plus that NFCU has brought.

  5. Anne on April 2nd, 2019 4:59 pm

    Wondering where the Preserve Perdido Key Representative is?
    Sometimes if one is in public office one must swallow the bitter bile and be a man about things such as supporting something good for the Entire County.
    Let’s make this something other than a dog park or place to raise mice for the beach.
    Weary of the “Me-Me-Me” politics.
    Lord please guide these Commissioners to do the Right Thing for We the Citizens.

  6. Citizen on April 2nd, 2019 1:04 am

    Great job and thanks to our four county commissioners.