Blythe Army Air Base

[P-59A]

      Blythe was only in operation for about two and a half years. It was all but abandoned before the war ended. In the post war years, it was all but torn down. As time went on some guy had the great idea of farming on it. In today's aerial photos you will the crop circles from that failed attempt to farm it.

       Blythe has a number of aircraft mishap sites around it and I visited two of them and looked for three others over the holidays. I really didn't think the base would be worth looking at, but a book gave some clues of places to look.

        Today Blythe has military aircraft like the Osprey and transports landing at the North South and East West runways along with helicopters. These runways have been paved over and are in use. A company totally restored the old hanger and it looks like they are DoD contractors training military troops. The locals see parachute jumps into a secured section of the base and I have been told British soldiers have been seen in town.

        Having said this, I know after 4x4ing around the perimeter they do not occupy the whole base. I found a little out of the way spot and did some metal detecting and came up good.

[P-59A]

This little token was very cool. I have no idea if it was a base token or not.

[P-59A]

I think the things that look like they are for ace bandages were used for leg wraps,,,putees? I think the white buttons were for long johns.

[Threewood]

Nice finds! I've been through Blythe a few times, never detected there. How much of the old airfield is fenced off?

[P-59A]

I had to drive around in my 4x4 to figure that out. On my way out I saw the better way in. If you pull in at the shotgun range and navigate around that new operations fence line it takes you to the aircraft parking stands and taxi runway. The North/South and East/West runways are operational so stay away from those, but the outer perimeter taxi runways are open areas. If you look at that aerial photo you can figure out where you need to go