page_title: Boca Raton Army Air Field
section_title: Eastern Technical Training Command
hierarchical_section_title: Boca Raton Army Air Field / History / Eastern Technical Training Command
caption_attribution_description: English: Emblem of the USAAF Radar School at Boca Raton Army Airfield, Florida (World War II)
context_page_description: Boca Raton Army Air Field was a World War II United States Army Air Forces airfield, located 1.7 miles northwest of the 1940s borders of Boca Raton, Florida. During World War II, it operated the only training for the then new and secret technology of radar. Closed in 1946, due to annexation the former base is now within the city of Boca Raton; the land is currently occupied by the Boca Raton Airport, Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College.
context_section_description: The new base was opened on 1 June 1942.   Flight operations from the airfield began during the summer.  Boca Raton AAF was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces Eastern Technical Training Command 3501st Base Unit (Technical School, Radar).
  Other units assigned to Boca Raton were the 319th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, which performed the base housekeeping duties, and the Air Technical Service Command 13th Sub Depot, which provided logistical support for transient aircraft at the airfield, although no permanent aircraft were stationed at the Base other than some light transport and courier aircraft.
  Although planned as a radar training base from the onset, one of the first missions of Boca Raton AAF was anti-submarine patrols over the Florida Atlantic coast.  The 26th Anti-Submarine Wing, based in Miami, deployed A-29 Hudson, B-34 Lexington and Lockheed B-37 Ventura light bombers, all equipped with anti-submarine equipment, which operated from the new airfield. The antisubmarine forces remained until mid-1943 when the Navy took over the coastal patrol mission. The Boca Raton airfield also was used as a way-station for planes being ferried by Air Transport Command over the  South Atlantic Ferry Route, its principal ferrying route for combat and transport aircraft being deployed to Europe, North Africa, the Soviet Union and the China Burma India Theater.  The use of the field by Transport Command continued throughout the war.
  The main mission, however, of Boca Raton AAF was the training of Air Force personnel in the use of radar.  The 3501st BU provided instruction courses for airborne radar operators, mechanics, and electronic officers.  Aviation cadets sometimes spent up to 20 hours per day on academic and military training. Classes included engineering, aerodynamics, and communications. After finishing their education at Yale University, these cadets were commissioned officers.   It is important to remember that during World War II, radar technology was classified Top Secret. Personnel selected to attend the Radar School were highly qualified and rigorously selected, as well as having to pass a rigorous background investigation.
  These courses meant an ever-increasing need for flight training and for aircraft.   The heavy volume of maritime traffic in the Atlantic provided ample opportunity for practice in radar applications. The airfield operated 24 hours a day with B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, B-25 Mitchells, and B-26 Marauders supplied by Third Air Force constantly flying. Radar-bombing runs were frequently made on the Avon Park Bombing Range.  In addition to teaching the operators, Boca Raton AF was responsible for installing Radar in aircraft and for training pilots in the use of the equipment.  Training for B-29 Superfortress crews from MacDill Field using Radar also took place here during the last year of the war.
  Life at the Boca Raton base was almost completely self-contained. In fact, the citizens of Boca Raton soon came to be dependent upon the base's recreational, entertainment, and medical facilities.  The Army Air Forces also took over the luxurious oceanfront Boca Raton Club to house trainees and officers from the radar training school. Residents reported conditions were anything but elegant, however. The expensive furnishings had been replaced by standard army bunks housing eight to a room, the swimming pool was boarded over, poor water pressure made bathing difficult, and a rigorous schedule allowed no excuses. When the club became too crowded, the grounds, including the golf course, turned into a tent camp.
  African-American soldiers provided much of the necessary support staff for the operations of the base, and a school was initiated to teach them aircraft engine repair and maintenance.  Black soldiers were segregated in Squadron F. Their housing, meals, training, and recreation were all separate from the white soldiers in accordance with the Florida laws regarding segregation at the time.
  In an administrative reorganization by HQ Army Air Force, on 1 May 1944, trai
caption: Emblem of the AAFTC Radar school at Boca Raton AAF (1943–1947)
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