D-Day WW2 Living History Event

Housed in the last surviving World War II infirmary of the former Zephyrhills Army Airfield, the Zephyrhills Museum of Military History offers a rare intact fragment of a 1940s training base. The structure once supported the 10th Fighter Squadron, which trained here from January 1943 to January 1944 before the airfield was turned over to the city as a municipal airport. Its very fabric—corridors, room layouts, utilitarian construction—speaks to the tempo and medical realities of a wartime training station. Inside, an extensive collection of artifacts traces U.S. military experience from the Civil War through World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the post–Cold War era, including material related to the September 11 attacks. Aircraft such as a Grumman OV-1B Mohawk reconnaissance platform, a Bell OH-58A Kiowa, and a Douglas C-53D Skytrooper illustrate evolving concepts in surveillance, rotary-wing utility, and troop transport engineering. Many pieces originate from local veterans, anchoring global conflicts in a small Florida community that once hosted a concentrated burst of air combat training activity.