Tyndall Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located east of Panama City, Florida. The base was named in honor of World War I pilot 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The base operating unit and host wing is the 325th Fighter Wing (325 FW) of the Air Combat Command (ACC). The base had a resident population of 2,994 at the 2010 census. In October 2018, Hurricane Michael caused significant damage to the base. History Tyndall Field first opened its doors on December 7 1941 as a gunnery range. The airfield was named in honor of 1st Lt Frank Benjamin Tyndall (1894–1930). With the establishment of the United States Air Force in 1947, the facility was renamed "Tyndall Air Force Base" on 13 January 1948. In December 1940, a site board determined that Flexible Gunnery School No. 9 would be located southeast of Panama City, Florida on East Peninsula. On 6 May 1941, U.S. Army and local dignitaries held an official ground breaking for the school. Panama City's mayor, Harry Fannin, dug the first spade full of sand, and Colonel Warren Maxwell, Tyndall's first commander, wielded the first ax on the stubborn palmetto plants, so common on the East Peninsula. The site was covered with pine and palmetto trees, scrub brush, and swamps. Bulldozers worked around the clock to clear the brush and fill in swamps. The base also subsumed the settlements of Cromanton, San Blas, Redfish Point, Auburn and Farmdale. Although construction was well underway, the base lacked a name. Congressman Bob Sikes suggested naming the school in memory of Lieutenant Francis B. Tyndall. A native of Sewall's Point, Florida, Lieutenant Tyndall was a fighter pilot during World War I, Silver Star recipient, and commander of the 22nd Aero Squadron, who was credited with shooting down six German planes well behind enemy lines in 1918. While inspecting Army fields near Mooresville, North Carolina on 15 July 1930, Tyndall's plane, Curtiss P-1F Hawk, 28–61, crashed, killing him instantly. On 13 June 1941, the War Department officially named the new installation Tyndall Field. On 7 December 1941, the first of 2,000 troops arrived at Tyndall Field. The first class of gunnery students began in February 1942. Although construction was incomplete, instructors and students began preparing for the first class. The first class of 40 gunnery students began on 23 February 1942. Of the thousands of students passing through the