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Things to Do

Military Heritage

Last updated

Eglin is the largest Air Force base in the world by area and Hurlburt runs AFSOC. What a visitor to Fort Walton Beach can see, including a free museum.

A museum hangar interior with several vintage military aircraft displayed under a high roofUnsplash

Most beach towns have a military base somewhere nearby. Fort Walton Beach is the other way round: the base has a beach town attached to it. Eglin Air Force Base occupies roughly 464,000 acres — about 724 square miles — spread across Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties, which makes it the largest installation the United States Air Force operates anywhere by land area. It also controls a block of over-water test airspace in the Gulf measured in six figures of square miles. Everything north and west of the city limits, all the pine forest you drive through to get here from Interstate 10, is range.

Nine miles down the coast at Mary Esther, Hurlburt Field runs a different business on about 6,700 acres. It is the headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command, activated on 22 May 1990, and the home of the 1st Special Operations Wing and the USAF Special Operations School. Gunships, tilt-rotors and low-level transport aircraft fly out of it. If you are on the beach on Okaloosa Island and something large, dark and unusually quiet crosses the shoreline at low altitude toward the west, that is where it is going.

This shapes the town more than the water does. Fort Walton Beach had around nine and a half thousand residents in the mid-1950s and has hovered near twenty thousand since 1990, and the difference between those numbers and the size of the commercial strip is made up by the base payroll. The result is a beach destination that also has a Tuesday economy: a town that empties less in September than its neighbours, that fills its restaurants with people on a duty schedule rather than a vacation one, and that has a change-of-station season in summer as well as a snowbird season in winter.

For a visitor, the practical news is good. The single best thing to do on this list is free and does not require you to pass a gate. The Air Force Armament Museum sits on Highway 85 outside the Eglin main gate, charges nothing to enter or park, and holds a collection of aircraft and air-delivered weapons that would be a paid headline attraction almost anywhere else. Beyond it, roughly a quarter of a million acres of the Eglin reservation is conditionally open to the public for hiking, paddling, fishing and camping under a permit that costs a fraction of a theme-park ticket.

Two honesty notes before you plan. Access to the bases themselves is a separate matter from access to the museum, and it is controlled by current Department of Defense policy rather than by anything a travel page can promise. And the reservation is a live test range: sections close daily for training, the closures are published rather than negotiable, and turning up without checking is how a good day out becomes a locked gate.

Our picks

The ones we would book

  • Editor's Pick

    Best tour that puts the coastline in military context

    Why we chose it

    A guided run along the shoreline west toward Hurlburt shows you the geography the bases were sited for: a protected sound, deep water at the pass and an empty coast to fly over. Ask whether the captain narrates the Eglin range and airspace, because the ones who do turn a boat ride into the best history lesson available here.

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  • Best Value

    Best cheap half day for anyone who likes aircraft

    Why we chose it

    Pair the free Armament Museum with a paid activity in the same afternoon and you get a full day for the price of half of one. The museum absorbs two hours easily, it sits on Highway 85 rather than on the beach strip, and it is the one indoor option here that adults enjoy more than children do.

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  • Best for Families

    Best add-on for a family with an aviation-minded child

    Why we chose it

    Children who have walked under a B-52 in the morning are markedly easier company on a boat in the afternoon. Look for a departure after two o'clock so the museum fits first, and choose something with a swim stop rather than a pure sightseeing loop, because attention is finite on a hot day.

  • Small Group

    Best small-group trip for the history rather than the party

    Why we chose it

    Crab Island in high season is not a history outing. A six or twelve passenger boat heading up Choctawhatchee Bay or west along Santa Rosa Sound is, and the guide has time to answer questions about East Pass, the Narrows and what the 1861 camp was actually watching for. Dearer per head, considerably better company.

The Air Force Armament Museum: free, and outside the gate

A pair of military jet aircraft on outdoor display under an open skyUnsplash
A pair of military jet aircraft on outdoor display under an open sky

Start here, and take longer over it than you expect to.

The museum sits at 100 Museum Drive on Highway 85, roughly seven miles north of Fort Walton Beach and just outside Eglin's main gate. That location is the important part: you do not need base access, a sponsor or a Department of Defense identification card to walk in. Admission is free and so is parking. It is generally open seven days a week during daytime hours, with the outdoor airpark accessible from sunup to sundown, and the interior closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Confirm the day's hours before a long drive.

The collection is built around the base's actual job, which is armament development and testing, so it reads differently from a general aviation museum. Alongside the aircraft there are cases of bombs, guns, guidance kits and fuses, laid out as the story of how air-delivered weapons developed rather than as trophies.

The airpark is the part that stops people in the car park. An SR-71A Blackbird, tail 17959, arrived in 1990 and sits outdoors; a B-52 followed in 1991. There is a B-17, an F-111, an AC-130 gunship, an A-10 and a long line of Cold War fighters from the F-80 forward. Aircraft are outdoors in Gulf salt air, so some wear their years honestly.

Allow two hours. Take water in summer, because the airpark has almost no shade and the aprons throw heat back at you.

The scale of Eglin, and why the drive in looks like that

The reason the approach to this coast from the north is an hour of unbroken pine with no billboards, no subdivisions and almost no exits is that you are driving through a weapons test range.

Eglin began in 1935 as the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base and took its present name in 1937, after Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Eglin. What it became is a single landholding of roughly 724 square miles, with the 96th Test Wing responsible for testing air-delivered weapons, guidance and command systems, the 33rd Fighter Wing training F-35 pilots and maintainers, and the Army's 7th Special Forces Group also resident.

The side effect for a visitor is a piece of accidental conservation. Because that land has been closed to development since the 1930s, the reservation holds an enormous continuous longleaf pine forest, including something in the order of 6,795 acres of genuine old growth — among the most extensive old-growth longleaf anywhere left. Longleaf once covered most of the southeastern coastal plain and now covers a small fraction of it. The largest surviving piece of it is a bombing range, which is an irony worth sitting with.

You will also hear the base. Aircraft noise is a daily fact here and the local phrase for it is unembarrassed. Sonic booms from over-water test work reach the coast occasionally, and the county publishes notice of scheduled testing. If low-frequency noise genuinely bothers you, this is a thing to know before booking rather than after.

Hurlburt Field and the special operations side

Hurlburt is the quieter name and the more unusual mission.

The field sits immediately west of Mary Esther, between Fort Walton Beach and Navarre, on around 6,700 acres that form part of the wider Eglin reservation. Air Force Special Operations Command was activated there on 22 May 1990 and has been headquartered there since. The 1st Special Operations Wing flies from it, and the USAF Special Operations School trains there.

What that translates into overhead is distinctive once you can recognise it. AC-130 gunships, four-engined and heavy, working at low level. CV-22 Ospreys, which sound like nothing else and change note as the nacelles rotate. MC-130 transports flying the sort of profiles that make people on the beach look up. Night flying is routine, because the mission is.

There is no public tour on demand. Hurlburt periodically hosts an air show and open house, as does Eglin, and those are the realistic opportunities for a civilian to stand on the flight line. They are not annual fixtures on a published calendar you can count on a year ahead, so check the base public affairs pages when you have dates rather than planning a trip around one.

The Air Commando heritage is worth reading about before you come. It gives the low-flying aircraft over Santa Rosa Sound a context that a beach holiday otherwise strips out of them.

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Sharing, or having it to yourselves

Most of what is bookable here sells two ways, and the cheaper one is not always the cheaper one. A shared departure is priced per person; a private booking is priced for the party, so the arithmetic flips somewhere around four to six people — and it is the only version where you pick the time. Check the party size each listing actually covers before you decide.

  • Book a seat

    A shared departure, priced per person. The cheapest way to do this for one or two people.

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    Priced for the party rather than the seat, and you choose the departure time.

Where the Doolittle Raiders learned to take off short

In March 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor, eighty aircrew and sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers came to this stretch of Florida pine to practise something no one had done: getting a medium bomber off the ground in the length of an aircraft carrier deck.

They trained at Eglin Field and its auxiliary fields, Wagner Field among them, between 9 and 25 March, with flags set out on the runway at carrier distances and instructors from Naval Air Station Pensacola helping. Eglin's shops carried out the modifications: extra fuel, the heavy Norden bombsight swapped out for a crude improvised one, and the tail guns replaced with painted broomsticks to save weight. On 18 April the aircraft launched from the deck of USS Hornet, further out than planned, and bombed Japan.

A historical marker on the base commemorates it, and the museum tells the story properly. The detail that lands hardest standing here is geographic rather than military: the pine and the sand in front of you are what the crews were looking at in the weeks before they flew a one-way mission.

This is also why the town's heritage sites reward an hour in sequence. The Doolittle story is Second World War Eglin; the Indian Temple Mound downtown is a thousand years older than the United States; and Camp Walton in 1861 was a company of volunteers watching a narrow stretch of Santa Rosa Sound because East Pass, at the time, was shallow enough to wade at low tide.

You can walk on the range, with a permit

Local tips

This is the part almost no visitor knows, and it is the best-value outdoor access on this coast.

Roughly 255,000 acres of the Eglin reservation are conditionally open to the public for recreation. Not as a special event — as a standing arrangement, managed by the base's Natural Resources Branch, which everyone locally calls Jackson Guard, at 107 Highway 85 North in Niceville.

  • Everyone aged 16 or over needs an Eglin Recreation Permit. It is bought online through the base's recreation system or in person at Jackson Guard, and it is inexpensive. Separate permits cover hunting.
  • The general recreation permit covers a lot: hiking, swimming, picnicking, bird watching, kayaking and canoeing, bicycling, horseback riding, freshwater fishing, pleasure driving on the sand roads, even disc golf.
  • Check the Public Access Map every single day you go. Areas close and reopen for testing and training, the closures are published daily, and they are not advisory. This is the one rule that matters.
  • A long section of the Florida National Scenic Trail crosses the reservation, running through steephead ravines and longleaf that look nothing at all like the coast twenty minutes south.
  • Take a paper map. Signal is patchy, the sand roads are numbered rather than named, and a phone that gives up in the middle of a 250,000-acre pine forest is a genuinely bad afternoon.

Rocky Bayou, the state park at Niceville, is the easy version of the same landscape if you would rather not deal with permits at all.

You probably land on the base

If you fly in, you fly into Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, and its three-letter code is VPS rather than anything beginning with D or F. The airport sits on Eglin property on State Road 85 north of the city, sharing the airfield with the Air Force, which is why the official FAA name pairs the base with the civil terminal and why your taxi-out can involve watching fighters.

Practically, this is the most convenient airport on this part of the coast for Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island, and the drive south to the beach is short. It is also small, so flight options are fewer and fares are frequently higher than Pensacola an hour west, which is the usual trade-off people make here.

Two things to expect. Photography restrictions apply airside in ways they would not at a civilian field, so read the signage rather than assuming. And the approach over the reservation gives you, on a clear day, the single best view available of how much of this county is pine forest owned by the Air Force.

Northwest Florida Beaches International at Panama City and Pensacola International are the alternatives, both roughly an hour or more away depending on traffic on US 98.

On the ground

Where to go

Every place below has its own page — hours, parking, what it costs and what to expect when you get there.

All attractions
  • The view forward from an aircraft cockpit over open water
    Museum

    Air Force Armament Museum

    Free

    An SR-71, a B-52 and around thirty aircraft in a 17-acre air park, free to enter, and outside the gate so no base pass is needed.

    1.5–3 hoursFree. Donations are requested and support the museum's operation. Parking is free.

    Photograph: Gatrfan

  • A military jet suspended from the roof of a large museum hall above exhibits on the floor below
    Landmark

    Eglin Air Force Base

    Free

    463,128 acres of pine and test range behind the beach: a free museum outside the gate, and a permit for walking any of the rest.

    1.5–8 hoursThe Air Force Armament Museum is free. Recreational access to the reservation requires an inexpensive Eglin permit.

    Photograph: Unknown authorUnknown author

  • A visitor standing in a gallery looking at exhibits on a white wall
    Historic site

    Indian Temple Mound and Museum

    A Mississippian-era earthwork on US-98, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, with a museum of local artefacts beside it.

    1–2 hoursRecently around $5 for adults, slightly less for seniors and military, $3 for children 4–17 and free under four, plus tax. One ticket covers every Heritage Park building.

    Photograph: Infrogmation

  • Tall widely spaced pine trunks with an open forest floor and water visible through the trees beyond
    Park

    Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park

    Three easy loops through 300-year-old longleaf pine on a bayou shore that the Air Force used as a gunnery range before it was a park.

    1.5–5 hoursA small per-vehicle entry fee, published at around $5, paid at the ranger station or honour box.

    Photograph: Dane314pizza

  • A row of retired military aircraft parked on grass and hard standing at an outdoor display
    Landmark

    Hurlburt Field

    Free

    Air Force Special Operations Command's home field, with an air park of gunships and memorials shut to the public for twenty years.

    1–2 hoursFree. There is no admission charge for the Memorial Air Park and parking at the main entrance is free.

    Photograph: Staff Sgt. Julianne M. Showalter

  • Rows of American flags standing on mown grass and moving in the wind under a bright sky
    Park

    Veterans Park

    Free

    Eight life-size bronzes of women who served, on seventeen acres of sound shore behind the convention centre. Free, and almost always empty.

    0.5–1.5 hoursFree, including parking at the adjacent convention centre lot.

    Photograph: Wikideas1

  • A wooden pioneer-era house with wide verandahs shaded by mature trees
    Museum

    Heritage Park & Cultural Center

    Four small museums and a prehistoric mound on one downtown block, covered by a single ticket of about five dollars.

    1–2.5 hoursOne ticket covers every building: recently about $5 for adults plus tax, less for seniors and military, $3 for children 4–17, free under four.

    Photograph: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

  • A raised timber boardwalk curving through dense green woodland and palmetto
    Neighbourhood

    Niceville

    Free

    The county's inland town, with a boardwalk over a creek clear enough to swim in and a name it chose in 1910 to stop being called Boggy.

    2–5 hoursFree to visit. The Turkey Creek boardwalk costs nothing; theatre tickets and state park entry are separate.

    Photograph: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

  • Small boats moored alongside a timber dock and gangway on sheltered water
    Neighbourhood

    Shalimar

    Free

    A few hundred people on a bayou between two air bases, on ground that was chartered in 1931 to become a deep-water port.

    0.5–1 hoursFree. There is nothing ticketed in Shalimar.

    Photograph: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Straight answers

Questions people actually ask

Can you visit the Air Force Armament Museum without base access?

Yes. The museum is at 100 Museum Drive on Highway 85, deliberately sited outside the Eglin main gate so that the public can reach it without a Department of Defense identification card or a sponsor. Admission and parking are both free. It is generally open daily during daytime hours, with the outdoor airpark from sunup to sundown, and the interior closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Check the current day's hours before making the drive from the beach.

How big is Eglin Air Force Base?

Roughly 464,000 acres, about 724 square miles, across Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties, which makes it the largest United States Air Force installation anywhere by land area. It also controls a very large block of over-water test airspace in the Gulf, measured in the tens of thousands of square miles. The practical consequence for a visitor is that the hour of unbroken pine forest you drive through to reach this coast from the north is a live test range.

Can civilians go on Eglin Air Force Base?

Access to the installation itself is governed by current Department of Defense policy and is not something a travel page can promise. What is reliably open to the public is separate: the Air Force Armament Museum sits outside the main gate, and roughly 255,000 acres of the Eglin reservation are conditionally open for recreation under an inexpensive permit. Base open houses and air shows happen periodically; check base public affairs when you have travel dates.

What is Hurlburt Field known for?

It is the headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command, which was activated there on 22 May 1990, and the home of the 1st Special Operations Wing and the USAF Special Operations School. The field occupies about 6,700 acres immediately west of Mary Esther and forms part of the wider Eglin reservation. The aircraft associated with it — AC-130 gunships, CV-22 Ospreys and MC-130 transports — are the ones you hear working at low level over the coast.

Did the Doolittle Raiders train in Fort Walton Beach?

They trained on the Eglin reservation just north of it. Between 9 and 25 March 1942, sixteen B-25 crews practised carrier-length takeoffs at Eglin Field and its auxiliary fields, including Wagner Field, with markers set out on the runways at deck distances. Eglin's shops made the modifications, including extra fuel tanks and dummy tail guns cut from broomsticks. The aircraft launched from USS Hornet on 18 April 1942. A historical marker commemorates the training.

Do you need a permit to hike on Eglin Air Force Base land?

Yes. Everyone aged sixteen or over needs an Eglin Recreation Permit to enter the roughly 255,000 acres of reservation conditionally open to the public. Permits are sold online through the base's recreation system and in person at the Natural Resources Branch office, known locally as Jackson Guard, at 107 Highway 85 North in Niceville. The permit covers hiking, paddling, fishing, camping and more, and you must check the daily Public Access Map for closures.

Why do you hear jets so often in Fort Walton Beach?

Because two major flying installations sit either side of the town and a third of the county is test range. Eglin runs armament testing and F-35 training, Hurlburt runs special operations aircraft, and Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport shares Eglin's airfield. Flying goes on at night as well as by day, and occasional sonic booms from over-water testing reach the coast. If low-frequency noise genuinely bothers you, it is worth knowing before you book a beachfront week.

Which airport do you fly into for Fort Walton Beach?

Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, code VPS, which sits on Eglin Air Force Base property on State Road 85 and shares the airfield with the Air Force. It is by far the closest option to the town and to Okaloosa Island. It is also small, so the route map is limited and fares are often higher than Pensacola International, roughly an hour west, which is the usual alternative along with Northwest Florida Beaches near Panama City.