Arnold AFB Carroll Building hits the big 3-0

  • Published
  • By Bradley Hicks
  • AEDC/PA

For a time, those at Arnold Air Force Base responsible for engineering analysis and computer operations were spread far and wide across the installation.

They either worked out of one of the dozens of “fish camp” trailers, as they were then described, set up across the base or occupied available space in buildings throughout Arnold.

Eventually, however, work would begin to bring these groups together under one roof.

The result of this effort – the structure now known as the Carroll Building – has for the past 30 years provided Arnold AFB with a centralized location for engineering analysis and computer operations.

The official completion of what was initially known as the Engineering Analysis Facility, or EAF, was marked with a “ribbon” cutting ceremony on Nov. 29, 1990. Rather than a traditional ribbon, a large computer printout bearing the name of the facility was snipped during the celebration.

Construction on the EAF began in March 1988. The $14.7 million, 126,000 square foot, three-story complex was built to provide office space for 600 operating contractor personnel.

The opening helped empty more than 30 trailers located across Arnold AFB and opened up office workspace in 10 other buildings on base.

On June 21, 1991, Gen. Ronald W. Yates, commander of the then-active Air Force Systems Command, was present at Arnold to dedicate the EAF in the name of Maj. Gen. Franklin O. Carroll II, the first commander of AEDC. The building was officially renamed the Carroll Engineering Analysis Facility.

“Gen. Carroll personified the vision and tenacity it took to make technology and testing a central focus within the Air Force,” Yates said during the dedication ceremony. “Without his foresight and commitment, we might not be standing here today. We’re here today only because he fought for AEDC in the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and in every other corner of government that he thought could make this become a reality.”

Carroll was born on Feb. 10, 1893, in Washington, Indiana. He attended the University of Illinois, earning his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in June 1916. He began his career that same month with the Illinois National Guard Horse Cavalry and served with Gen. John Pershing’s Expeditionary Force that searched for Pancho Villa.

In May of the following year, he entered Officers Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and, that August, began flight training at Kelly Field, Texas. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in January 1918 in the Aviation Section of the Signal Reserve and was assigned to Kelly Field as an instructor, teaching students to fly planes as World War I continued.

In June 1919, Carroll was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Air Services in Washington, D.C. The following year, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed the Air Service Course in June 1921.

After assignments at McCook Field, Ohio, Kelly Field and Wright Field, Ohio, among others, and his graduation from the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, Carroll was again assigned to Wright Field in 1939 as chief of the experimental engineering section’s research and development branch. After a three-month stint the following year during which he served as an assistant military attaché in London, England, Carroll returned to Wright Field as chief of the experimental engineering section, remaining in that capacity until the end of World War II. There, he was at the center of every major experimental and engineering project during World War II.

According to his Air Force biography, Carroll approved the creation of the world’s most advanced wind tunnels and laboratories for aeromedical research, communications, navigation and radar. He also oversaw the introduction of the first jet engine to Wright Field.

Other assignments followed and, in October 1949, Carroll became assistant deputy chief of staff for materiel at the Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He soon assumed command of the Air Engineering Development Division of Air Materiel Command. This division was established to oversee the creation of AEDC.

In November 1950, Carroll moved the Air Engineering Development Division to Tullahoma, Tennessee. The site was re-designated the Arnold Engineering Development Center by President Harry S. Truman on June 25, 1951.

Carroll retired from the U.S. Air Force in early 1954. Among his many medals, Carroll held the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the World War I Victory Medal, the Mexican Border Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Asian-Pacific Theater Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal (Japan).

He died on Sept. 13, 1988, at the age of 95.

Carroll was posthumously selected earlier this year to be honored as an AEDC Honorary Fellow.