Escambia County Celebrates Historic NOLF Site 8 Land Exchange

The Escambia County Board of Commissioners celebrated the historic land transfer and future of Naval Outlying Landing Field Site 8 with a ceremony on Monday, April 1 at Site 8, located in Beulah. During the ceremony, Escambia County recognized those who were involved in making this historic land exchange a reality. County officials, local leaders and members of the community joined Escambia County to celebrate the occasion.

The monumental exchange is a win-win for both the U.S. Navy and the residents of Escambia County. The Navy received a new training airfield that better meets their training mission, in an area without encroachment issues. County residents received approximately 635 acres of prime property to utilize for improvements in the heart of the growing Beulah community.

Following initial discussions and coordination between the U.S. Navy and Escambia County, the President signed the National Defense Authorization Act in 2015 that authorized the historic land exchange. In 2016, the land exchange agreement was formalized with the intention to transfer the property at NOLF Site 8 to Escambia County, in exchange for a suitable replacement.

Escambia County purchased land in Santa Rosa County and began construction in 2016 on what is now called OLF-X. Naval Facilities Southeast Region in Jacksonville, Navy Installations Command and Whiting Field coordinated with Escambia County to ensure requirements for the training mission at NAS Whiting Field were met for the new outlying field. On Jan. 29, the deeds were exchanged, finalizing the transfer. NAS Whiting Field opened Naval Outlying Landing Field-X for flight training operations on Jan. 30.

NOLF Site 8 History

NOLF Site 8 was originally constructed in 1940 as an auxiliary airfield for Pensacola NAS. At approximately 635 acres, Site 8, along with NOLFs Spencer and Pace, was one of the oldest NOLFs still in use until the land transfer with Escambia County in 2019.

Site 8 was initially used as a fixed wing training field. The field had undergone several changes and was temporarily closed in the mid to late 1950s. In 1964, the NOLF was brought back into service as an NOLF to support NAS Whiting Field’s rotary-pilot training mission. The NOLF was used as a primary tactical training asset by TRAWING 5. The field provided facilities to support training in rotary tactics, confined area landings, platform landings, external loads missions, hot refueling and was tentatively studied to support night vision training.