Bartow Air Base
| Bartow Air Base Bartow Army Airfield  |
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| Part of Air Training Command | |
| Located near: Lakeland, Florida | |
Bartow Air Base - 1958
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 Bartow Air Base
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| Coordinates | 27°56′36″N 081°47′00″W / 27.94333°N 81.78333°WCoordinates: 27°56′36″N 081°47′00″W / 27.94333°N 81.78333°W |
| Site history | |
| In use | 1942-1945, 1952-1961 |
Bartow Air Base, is a former United States Air Force base, located 4.9 mi northeast of Bartow, Florida. It was closed in 1961. Today the facility is known as Bartow Municipal Airport
In early 1942, local officials persuaded the United States Army Air Forces to develop a military air base at the site of the Bartow Municipal Airport, built in the 1930s. The War Department and the city of Bartow agreed to a lease and The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improved and expanded the three runways, into a star-shaped pattern of 5000×150(NE/SW), 5000×150(E/W), 5000×150(NW/SE) along with a series of taxiways, dispersal parking hardstands, hangar ramp and constructed the necessary buildings to operate a training facility.
The new airfield was assigned to Third Air Force, based at MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida. Initially planned on being a III Bomber Command training station, the need for fighter pilots in 1942 was greater and it was transferred to III Fighter Command, headquartered at Drew Army Airfield, also near Tampa.
Construction was completed by the fall of 1942 and on 30 November 1942, the Bartow Army Airfield opened as a Fighter Replacement Training Station. With the station's activation, the 530th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron was also activated to manage the base facilities; the 491st Sub Depot to supply and maintain the aircraft; the 40th Service Group for the administration of the base, and the 54th Fighter Group. The 54th was a former combat unit that had served in Alaska against the Japanese forces that invaded the Aleutian Islands during the summer of 1942, and for these operations the group received a Distinguished Unit Citation. The training squadrons assigned were the 56th and 57th Fighter Squadrons, equipped with P-51D Mustangs. The P-51 aircraft were delivered to Bartow from the North American Aircraft factory in California by the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
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