Corry Field was the first auxiliary field established by the Navy to support flight training operations at the Pensacola Flight School.

With the announcement in November 1921 that landplane training would soon take place at Pensacola, Navy planners sought an additional practice field to accommodate increased training activity.  Pensacola city officials offered a 250-acre site north of Pensacola for the new field.

In 1922, the site was obtained from the Escambia County Commission on a no-cost, 5-year lease.

The airfield constructed at this site was named Corry Field in honor of LCDR William M. Corry,

who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his attempt to rescue a fellow crew member from a burning aircraft.

Training began at Corry Field on July 1, 1922. The field was sandy & facilities were primitive.

For a time, groundskeepers were on station to keep cows from wandering into the landing area during flight operations, and a bootlegger had set up a still nearby to supply the aviators with liquid refreshment. Eventually temporary facilities, including a small barracks, mess hall and garage, were built.

Students, after completing their primary seaplane training, began their primary landplane instruction at Corry in the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny”, replaced in late 1927 by the Consolidated NY-1.

In 1927, at the end of the original 5-year lease period, the site was deemed too small, and a new & larger site, located 3 miles north of NAS Pensacola, was presented to the Navy by the County Commission.

The Corry Field name was applied to this new site (which opened for flight training in 1927) and the older field became an outlying ofield (OLF) known as Old Corry Field).