Gulfport Army Airfield

The field outlived the bomber crews it was built for. When the Air Force leased it back on a joint-use basis, Gulfport Air Force Base was activated in July 1951 as headquarters of the Technical Training Air Force, which directed ten wings from Scott in Illinois to Sheppard in Texas. Contract flying training for prospective pilots also ran here. The Air Force closed the base in 1958 and passed its military facilities to the Mississippi Air National Guard, whose training activity, begun in 1953, grew into the Combat Readiness Training Center, one of four in the nation.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Biloxi Lighthouse — 10 mi
  A cast-iron tower lit in 1848 on the Biloxi beachfront, kept by women for most of its first century and still in service after Camille and Katrina.
• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 10 mi
  The beachfront parking lot beside the Biloxi Lighthouse where state markers recall the 1959 and 1960 wade-ins that opened Mississippi's public beaches to Black residents.
• Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art — 12 mi
  Frank Gehry's pavilions on the Biloxi waterfront, built around the pottery of George Ohr, the self-styled Mad Potter, and the rebuilt Pleasant Reed House.
• Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum — 13 mi
  A Point Cadet museum on Biloxi's oyster, shrimp and schooner past, from the packing houses and the shrimpers' unions to the Vietnamese families who rebuilt the industry.

More markers nearby

• Turkey Creek Community — 0.8 mi
• Gulfport Boogie — 1.5 mi
• Mississippi City Cemetery — 2.0 mi
• Broadcasting the Blues — 2.6 mi