'Living testament': TCC hosts ceremony at site of future Dale Mabry Army Airfield Museum
Sitting in chilly weather on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, over 100 people gathered at the site of the future Dale Mabry Army Air Field (DMAAF) Museum on Tallahassee Community College’s campus.
The Thursday gathering consisted of a ribbon cutting and flag raising ceremony in honor of the nation’s resolve following the surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor 82 years ago.
But Dale Mabry Army Air Field Museums Chair and CEO Chuck Wells says the event was also a moment of breaking ground on the 5-acre planned complex, slated to be complete in spring 2024.
“There’s a story here that’s not being told — a story that we can embrace and learn from,” Wells told the Tallahassee Democrat. “This is about bringing the heritage forward and sharing it with current generations as we have a shared future ahead of us.”
He says the complex will be a multi-million-dollar project over time, and that the museum’s board is seeking legislative appropriation for the first phase of the initiative.
As a major World War II U.S. Air Corps base that opened in 1929 and grew to 1,720 acres, the DMAAF was a site where over 18,000 fighter pilots — including many of the well-known Tuskegee Airmen — trained in aerial combat before being deployed.
The army airfield was Tallahassee’s first municipal airport and was named after Captain Dale Mabry, a Tallahassee native.
The airfield was also in the Tallahassee neighborhood known today as Mabry Manor, and Sabal Palm Elementary School is the center of where the airbase was located, according to Wells.
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Deactivated after the war in 1946, the land and equipment were given to the city of Tallahassee at no charge and continued to operate as the municipal airport until 1961, when the Tallahassee International Airport was established.
But with the historic land of the future complex being the site of today’s TCC, the college has a partnership with the museum non-profit organization to create a space for the airfield’s story to be on display.
“We’ve always known that the legacy and history that this college has is affiliated with the Dale Mabry Field, but to see this effort come to life, and to see what will become an incredible part of our community to provide access to a rich history about our past is pretty amazing,” said TCC President Jim Murdaugh, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
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The complex will consist of a historic residential structure — which was a “Mabry Heights” housing complex for 100 military families in the 1940s — that will be relocated from Florida State University’s campus.
Wells says the future complex will recreate the three runways that were a part of the army airfield. They will be walking paths of the museum that lead to different displays.
“The museum will truly be more than just a collection of artifacts,” Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said. “It will truly be a living testament to the courage, resilience and comradery that define our armed forces.”
Then-FSU President John Thrasher signed a memorandum of understanding in 2021 for the Dale Mabry Army Air Field Museum to take possession of the structure.
The museum board hopes to use saved architectural elements from one of the base chapels that was on the airfield to put them on display.
The complex will also be home to the recently relocated flagpole that came from the municipal airport over 60 years ago.
For more information about Tallahassee’s Dale Mabry Army Air Field Museum, visit DMAAF.org.
Contact Tarah Jean at [email protected] or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: TCC hosts ceremony at future Dale Mabry Army Airfield Museum on campus
