Stoval, AZ

I walked 6.55 miles today.  I had to do some walking in the early morning in order to get in my mileage in because, in the evening, my son and I went to a musical, "Sister Act," with our friends, Katie and Mary Ann.

On the map, we're still in the Gila River valley, inching our way toward Phoenix.  But, we're past the irrigated "green" zone and off into the desert on a dirt service road that parallels the railroad tracks.

The mileage on the map brought me parallel with Stoval, AZ.  Stoval is a tiny "populated place" along the 8 freeway.  But, something of note is the historical abandoned WWII Stoval airfield just South of the 8 freeway.  Stoval airfield was one of seven satellite airfields near Yuma AAF, used to train WWII bomber and gunner crews. I can just imagine how many WWII B-17 and B-24 gunners and pilots trained on the gunnery ranges near this abandoned airfield.

Here's a Google aerial photo of the Stoval airfield.

This field was built during WW2 as one of 7 satellite airfields for Yuma AAF, which conducted primary flight training & training of bomber aircrews.  The earliest depiction which has been located of the Stoval airfield was a 6/23/43 aerial view looking north from the 1945 AAF Airfield Directory (courtesy of Scott Murdock). It depicted “Yuma Army Air Field Auxiliary (Stoval Ground Gunnery Range)” as having 2 asphalt runways and an asphalt ramp on the northeast side.

The 1945 AAF Airfield Directory (courtesy of Scott Murdock) described “Yuma Army Air Field Auxiliary (Stoval Ground Gunnery Range)” as having 2 asphalt 4,000' runways, oriented northeast/southwest & east/west.  The field was reported as having any hangars. Stoval was described as being operated by the Army Air Forces, but inactive.  Abandoned and Little Known Airfields - Arizona, Yuma Area