Military Archive

It’s hard to imagine today, but just over 100 years ago the coastal plains of America from Virginia to eastern Texas were covered by about 92 million acres of longleaf pines. Fortunately, we have folks like Vernon Compton who care about preserving and restoring the 1.3 million acres left in Northwest Florida and South Alabama.

The brass ensemble of the U.S. Air Force Band of the West, stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, is comprised of two trumpets, French horn, trombone, tuba and percussion, and played to a full house at Warriors Hall on a cold, rainy Friday evening.

He told the media last week that he’d been kicked out, but he’s still there, according to Ann Sprague, president of the Crestview Area Shelter for the Homeless.

Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) and several community leaders recently announced the final passage of resolutions supporting an increase in the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) rate for military service members in Florida’s First District. The resolutions were introduced and passed in Escambia County, Okaloosa County, Santa Rosa County, and Walton County.

U.S. Air Force Band of the West ensemble will perform a concert at Warrior Hall on Feb. 4.

Students at Gulf Breeze Elementary school were visited by Santa Claus, who arrived by helicopter thanks to the HT-8 Eightballers, a helicopter training squadron assigned to Training Air Wing Five at Naval Air Station Whiting Field.

Here’s the text of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s letter, also signed by eight other House members:

Florida’s aerospace agency has been working to bring a Space Force training site to the state after the command headquarters for the fledgling military branch landed in Alabama.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced Sept. 15 in a Milton press conference that Santa Rosa, Escambia and Okaloosa counties will receive $3.4 million in grant funding from the Department of Economic Opportunity.

“We appreciate having great installations and a great active-duty footprint, and of course NWF is one of the strongest military communities in the nation – we understand that enriches our community and our economy,” DeSantis said at the conference.

Each December, volunteers bundle up against the cold and walk the silent rows of the nation’s military cemeteries, carrying armfuls of bright green Christmas wreaths.