Hurlburt Field (ICAO: KHRT, FAA LID: HRT) is a United States Air Force installation located in Okaloosa County, Florida, immediately west of the town of Mary Esther.

An official history of Eglin AFB's early years cites October 2, 1943, as the date for this accident, and also notes that Capt.

Barclay H. Dillon, test pilot of the Fighter Section of the 1st Proving Ground Group, died in another accident the same date.

Hurlburt's nephew was Captain Craig D. Button, USAF, noted for his mysterious flight and crash of an A-10 Thunderbolt on April 2, 1997.

"A former Hurlburt Field base commander in the 1950s may have started this story, and several official histories and raider interviews have perpetuated this belief.

[10] For the 2008 gathering of Doolittle mission survivors, six crew were present for recognition in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, culminating in a reenactment of the training sessions by three civilian-owned B-25 Mitchells at Duke Field on 31 May.

Navy personnel from NAS Pensacola, as flight deck "shirt" crew, represented that service's contribution to the Tokyo mission.

On January 5, 1967 an international incident was narrowly avoided when a TGM-13 Mace, launched from Santa Rosa Island, which was supposed to circle over the Gulf on a racetrack course for shoot-down by a pair of Eglin F-4 Phantoms, instead, headed south for Cuba.

[17] Other launches in the 1960s included six high-altitude releases of vaporized barium from 2-stage Nike Iroquois sounding rockets in January 1967 to measure wind speeds and directions in the upper atmosphere, conducted under the auspices of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories in conjunction with the Space Systems Branch of the Aircraft and Missile Test Division, Air Proving Ground Center, Eglin AFB.

The main body made the trip on the troop ship General Gaffney, while another group, comprising airmen from other Fifth Air Force units, arrived in San Francisco in early April 1955, aboard the pocket aircraft carrier, the Cape Esperance.

"[20] The 17th Bomb Wing was stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida, operating from Hurlburt Field, where it was programmed to receive the Martin B-57 Canberra, the replacement for the B-26 Invader.

The first jet aircraft to land at Hurlburt was a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star which arrived from Ninth Air Force Headquarters, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, on July 28, 1955, piloted by Maj. J. H. Murrow and Maj. L. F. Collins.

With the reactivation of Hurlburt, housing was at a premium, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert S. Kramer, Assistant Army District Engineer at Mobile, Alabama, announced on April 5, 1956, that a contract had been awarded in the amount of $3,315,143.34 to the McDonough Construction Company of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, for the construction of 151 buildings of concrete block with brick facing.

The 4410th Combat Crew Training Wing was activated at Hurlburt Field on December 1, 1965, later moving to England AFB, Louisiana, in July 1969.

In December the 4407th CCTS would be activated to assume the mission of the 4410th while that unit began training crews in the new OV-10 Bronco FAC aircraft.

"[25] The first jet-augmented Fairchild C-123K Provider arrived at Hurlburt Field on January 5, 1968, and the first of 76 of the type to be ferried to Vietnam by the 319th Air Commando Squadron departed on April 10.

"[27] In the early 1960s, Hurlburt was utilized as a Strategic Air Command dispersal base for B-47s of the 306th Bomb Wing at MacDill AFB, Florida.

[citation needed] The Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) was previously located at Hurlburt Field until its relocation to MacDill AFB in 2011.

JSOU's lecturers include specialists from all branches of the US military, the US Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, civilian universities, and nongovernmental organizations.

[29] A grade-separated intersection at the main gate with a fly-over on U.S. 98 was completed in the summer of 2015, greatly relieving a long-time traffic bottleneck.