A hugely popular figure in Central Florida, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a funeral that included a flyover of multiple B-47s.

Two bomb squadrons of the 9th Bombardment Group at Orlando AAB, the 5th, equipped with B-24 Liberators and the 99th, with B-25 Mitchells, B-26 Marauders and B-17 Flying Fortresses, operated from Pinecastle during the war.

In addition to the training mission, beginning in 1943, Pinecastle AAF was used as the AAFSAT Technical Center, operating an Air Force General Maintenance and Supply Depot facility.

In August 1945, under the Proving Ground Command (PGC), the base was used for testing of the B-32 Dominator bomber, although operations in 1945 at the field were severely curtailed due to personnel shortages caused by post-war demobilization.

The X-1's high sink rate and the problems of keeping the plane in sight amid Florida's frequent clouds also added two more votes in favor of the Army Air Force's decision to go to Muroc.

On 1 January 1954, ATC transferred both the B-47 crew training mission at Pinecastle AFB and jurisdiction of the base to the Strategic Air Command.

In November 1957, the base was host to the medium and heavy bombers participating in the annual Strategic Air Command Bombing Navigation and Reconnaissance Competition.

Another distinguished unit assigned to Pinecastle AFB in November 1957 was the Air Defense Command's 76th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (76 FIS).

[5] A descendant of the famous World War II "Flying Tigers," the 76 FIS was commanded by Major Morris F. Wilson and flew the F-89H "Scorpion" all-weather fighter-interceptor.

The 4047th was part of SAC's "Strategic Wing" concept, which was to disperse its medium and heavy bombers and tanker aircraft over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.

Half of the bombers and tankers were maintained on fifteen-minute alert, fully fueled, armed, and ready for combat, while the remainder were used for training in bombardment missions and air refueling operations.

On 15 September, the 321st Combat Support Group was also organized and on that same date Colonel William G. Walker, Jr., assumed command of the 4047th Strategic Wing.

It also furnished airborne radar surveillance and technical control in support of global air defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff contingency operations.

However, its World War II era 6,000-foot runways were dangerously short to handle the new Boeing 707, Convair 880 and Douglas DC-8 commercial passenger jets.

Additional acreage was provided to Orlando east of the airfield in 1972 and two modern airport terminals were constructed between 1978 and 1981, along with improved parking and other infrastructure.

With the improved civil airport at McCoy, the new wide-body Boeing 747, Douglas DC-10, and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar airliners began scheduled service.

General Sweeney, as Commander of Tactical Air Command (TAC), proposed an operational plan which first called for an air attack on the surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites in the vicinity of known medium range (MRBM) and intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) launchers by eight fighter-bombers per SAM site.

General Sweeney's plan was accepted and, additionally, Cuban Ilyushin Il-28 "Beagle" medium bomber airfields were added to the target list.

A few hours into his mission, Anderson's aircraft was engaged by a Soviet-manned SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile site in the vicinity of Banes, Cuba.

Vulcan B.2 bombers and Victor K.2 tankers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) Strike Command would also travel to McCoy AFB from their home bases in the United Kingdom to participate in this multi-week competition.

In 1966, the 306 BW began preparing and training for deployment to the Western Pacific in support of Projects Arc Light & Young Tiger.

In January 1968, the 306 BW received another Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for this "double-duty" for combat operations in Southeast Asia while maintaining an alert status for SAC.

The 306 BW returned to McCoy AFB from its final Southeast Asia deployment in early 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords ended American involvement in the conflict.

In making this announcement, SECDEF Elliot Richardson noted that Ramey was on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and Westover and McCoy near the east coast of the United States and therefore, as a rationale for their closure, were "...subject to short warning time attacks by (Soviet) submarine-launched ballistic missiles."

[15] However, the 250 mile rationale had been partially employed (in addition to other factors, ranging from the retirement of SAC B-47s in the early 1960s to the costs of maintaining SAC B-52 units in Southeast Asia in support of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s) in the earlier transitioning of MacDill AFB and Homestead AFB in Florida from SAC bomber/tanker bases to TAC fighter bases, the removal of a tenant SAC bomb wing at Eglin AFB, Florida to also be replaced by a TAC fighter wing, the turnover of Turner Air Force Base, Georgia to the United States Navy and its redesignation as Naval Air Station Albany, and the turnover of Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia to the U.S. Army and its redesignation as Hunter Army Airfield.

[18] This transfer also contained a reversal clause, another standard practice at the time, enabling the Air Force to return to McCoy in the future if national security requirements ever dictated same.

GOAA also leases buildings and property to private individuals and companies, primarily for aviation-related activities in support of the respective airports.

These formerly remote and uninhabited areas were leased from local landowners at the time and used as bombing and gunnery ranges for Orlando AAB and Pinecastle AAF when both were Army Air Forces facilities during World War II.

In recent years, new discoveries of unspent conventional munitions have caused repeated closures of Odyssey Middle School, northeast of Orlando International Airport.

This concept never came to fruition, but the Alert Facility, a nose dock hangar and several buildings on the north end of the McCoy ramp were turned over to the United States Army Reserve (USAR) for use as the 49th Army Aviation Support Facility for USAR units, specifically the 138th Aviation Company (EW), which operated RU-8D, JU-21A, RU-21A, RU-21B and RU-21C aircraft until replaced by C-12 Huron and RC-12G electronic reconnaissance aircraft, plus the 348th Medical Detachment with UH-1 medical evacuation helicopters.