Carlstrom Field Carlstrom Field is a former military airfield , located southwest of Arcadia , Florida . The airfield was one of thirty - two Air Service training camps established in 1917 after the United States entry into World War I . History . Carlstrom Field was named after 1st Lieutenant Victor Carlstrom . He was born in Sweden on April 13 , 1890 . He migrated to the United States through Ellis Island in 1904 when he was 14 . He moved to North Park , Colorado where his uncles Andrew Carlstrom and William Norell Carlstrom had established cattle ranches . Carlstrom was killed in an aircraft accident in Newport News , Virginia , who had made many " first " flights and set many altitude and distance records . On 9 May 1917 , Carlstrom and a student pilot were killed when the wing of the aircraft he was piloting failed in flight . World War I . In 1917 the Army announced its intention of establishing a series of camps to train prospective pilots after the United States entry into World War I . An Army survey crew was sent to Southwest Florida looking for suitable sites to build airfields , one selected was a site about 6 miles to the southwest of Arcadia , Florida . An agreement to lease the land for the Army was concluded , and the construction of some 90 buildings began in January 1918 . It covered over which included fourteen hangars that housed four to eight planes each , a hospital , and six barracks that held 175 men each . Dozens of wooden buildings served as headquarters , maintenance , and officers ’ quarters . Enlisted men had to bivouac in tents . In March , 1918 the 107th and 108th Aero Squadrons was transferred from Rich Field , Waco , Texas and assigned to the new Carlstrom Field . In April the 76th and 109th Aero Squadrons , also arrived from Rich Field , but were subsequently transferred over to Dorr Field ; which was designed as an auxiliary sub - field for Carlstrom . Only a few Air Service aircraft arrived from Waco ; most of the Curtiss JN - 4 Jennys to be used for flight training were shipped in wooden crates by railcar . Carlstrom Field served as a base for flight training for the Army Air Service . In 1918 , flight training occurred in two phases : primary and advanced . Primary training took eight weeks and consisted of pilots learning basic flight skills under dual and solo instruction with a student capacity of 300 . After completion of their primary training at Carlstrom , flight cadets were then transferred to another base for advanced training . Squadrons assigned to Carlstrom Field were : Junius Wallace Jones , who later rose to the rank of Major General and was the first Inspector - General of the United States Air Force received his flight training here . With the sudden end of World War I in November 1918 , the future operational status of Carlstrom Field was unknown . Many local officials speculated that the U . S . government would keep the field open because of the outstanding combat record established by Carlstrom - trained pilots in Europe . Locals also pointed to the optimal weather conditions in the Southwest Florida area for flight training . Cadets in flight training on 11 November 1918 were allowed to complete their training , however no new cadets were assigned to the base . Also the separate training squadrons were consolidated into a single Flying School detachment , as many of the personnel assigned were being demobilized . Inter - war period . Rapid demobilization followed the end of World War I , and despite the experience of that conflict , the Army ' s air arm remained quite small during most of the interwar period . After the armistice , Carlstrom Field served as a testing area for various aircraft , dirgibles , and other aeronautical weapons . In October 1919 , final testing of an experimental unmanned aircraft called the " Kettering Bug " , one of the earliest examples of a cruise missile , was successfully tested & launched at Carlstrom Field . In January 1920 primary pilot instruction resumed on a small scale at Carlstrom Field with the opening of the Air Service Pilots ' School . Training in primary flying took place at both Carlstrom and Dorr Fields . However , the administrative difficulties of the Air Service training about 200 flying cadets concurrently at such widely separated locations in Texas , California and Florida prompted a decision in 1923 to centralize all flying training in San Antonio , Texas . Carlstrom was ordered to phase down all activities at the base , and the flying training school was subsequently transferred to Brooks Field . The War Department had ordered that a small caretaker force remain to dismantle all remaining structures and to sell them as surplus , and by 1926 Carlstrom field was closed . Throughout the remainder of the 1920s and 1930s , the War Department leased out the vacant land to local farmers and ranchers . World War II . With the need for primary pilot training brought on by World War II , Carlstrom re - opened in March 1941 under the operation of Riddle Aeronautical Institute . The 53d Flying Training Detachment was activated under then Brigadier - General Junius Wallace Jones , who learned to fly at Carlstrom . The 53d FTD exercised Air Corps oversight of Embry - Riddle . A new facility was built adjacent to the remains of World War I - era facilities and Riddle contracted to train Royal Air Force aviators and graduated the first class in August 1941 . Carlstrom Field had a very unusual layout , with a compact group of buildings located inside a circular road , with five hangars located around the southern periphery of the road . No paved runway was ever built with the flying conducted from the grass field . Postwar use . Closed after the war , Carlstrom Field became the site of the G . Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital in 1947 . Many of World War II era buildings remain in use by the hospital , with former six - plane hangars serving as maintenance buildings . The band shell , site of dances and other entertainment during the war , remains on the site . In 2002 , the G . Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital was closed and operates today as the Desoto County Juvenile Correctional Complex . The only remembrance of Carlstrom field today is a plaque on the administration building placed when it was refurbished by the state of Florida in 1992 , and a tired B - 17 weather vane on top of the building . The Oak Ridge Cemetery in Arcadia is the final resting - place of twenty - three RAF cadets who died while in the United States for training . A special marker at the cemetery recognizes their service and a ceremony is held in their memory each year on Memorial Day . Though the original World War II blueprints called for six hangars at Carlstrom Field , only five were ever constructed . Of those five , the two built first survive . Also still standing are the mess hall , band shell , canteen , administration building , water and sewage plants , and two training buildings . All that remains from World War I version of Carlstrom Field are concrete pads along Highway 31 upon which the wooden hangars stood , and across the highway , on private property , is a concrete full - scale outline of a World War I biplane that is approximately one foot tall . It was used for target practice by filling it up with water and cadets would shoot at it from the air and be able to see " hits " when their bullets struck the water .