FUDS: Pinecastle Jeep Range

Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS)

In 1943, the U.S. Government leased 12,483 acres of land in Orlando (Orange County), Florida to be used as a gunnery and demonstration range for testing and troop instruction in methods of tactical bombing and strafing, or gunfire attacks. The former Pinecastle Jeep Range was an off-post site for the Pinecastle Army Air Field and the Army Air Force Tactical Center at the Orlando Army Air Base (now the Orlando International Airport).

The Range uses included small arms training, air tactics evaluations and demonstrations of strafing, bombing, air-to-ground rocket firing and high explosive bombing.

In 1946 the Pinecastle Jeep Range was declared surplus and all leases on the land were terminated by December 1947.

The site is currently owned by several local government agencies and private individuals for residential, highway/expressway, landfill, and undeveloped pasture land use.

More Information:
www.saj.usace.army.mil/Divisions/ProgramProjectMgt/Bran...

Various Maps of Affected Areas:
www.saj.usace.army.mil/Divisions/ProgramProjectMgt/Bran...