07/16/2026
Civil Air Patrol History....
On this day in 1942, CAP National Headquarters authorized the activation of Coastal Base 14 (CP-14) in Panama City, Florida, along the Gulf Sea Frontier. By this time, 78 ships had already been sunk in the Gulf, plus a major shipyard was being constructed in the Panama City area.
CP-14 initially consisted of volunteers from Cincinnati, Columbus, Versailles, Springfield, and various other Ohio cities, although personnel from other states eventually were assigned to the base. They established CP-14 at Atkinson Field, an abandoned, snake-infested air strip four miles northwest of Panama City that consisted of overgrown sod and sand runways and a cracked concrete apron that was filled with weeds.
Over the next few weeks, CAP members lived in tents along a nearby bayou and got Atkinson Field back into usable condition. They scavenged lumber and supplies from a local Civilian Conservation Corps camp to build barracks, a mess hall, an operations building, and a maintenance hangar. They even travelled to an island 100 yards off the shore of the base to clear enough vegetation to build the outline of a German submarine (complete with a conning tower made from 55-gallon drums) for bombing practice.
The next challenge for the CP-14 personnel was to train and equip themselves for coastal patrols. In addition to their bombing practice, crews received instruction in open water navigation and communications. By early August, the base was ready to begin operations.
Stay tuned for the next post about CP-14 which will be published on August 8th, the anniversary of the base's first patrol!
Image descriptions: Aerial view of CP-14, view of the base operations building (left) and maintenance hangar (right), closeup of the operations building
