Peninsula In Passage

Driver Business Farm Field to OLF in Driver

In 1939 the U.S. Navy leased a 616-acre portion of the Monogram Farm to construct an Outlying Landing Field to support flying training at nearby Norfolk Naval Air Station. In 1941 the Navy purchased the property and began training on grass runways. Monogram had 4 sod runways and a single 111’ x 58’ hanger with a control tower at one corner. The barracks at Monogram could accommodate 230 people. Because Monogram had grass runways it was the designated landing field for all Navy aircraft in the Norfolk area with hung bombs or those that required wheel-up landings. Monogram provided crash crews and work parties for the nearby NOLF Suffolk (Suffolk Airport). In 1944 Seabees installed a catapult and arresting system with a 1,500’ paved runway on the north side of the grass runways. The airfield was closed on December 5, 1945 at the end of World War II but Monogram Field continued as a Naval Radio Transmitting Facility. In 1994 the facility was shut down and the land was given to the City of Suffolk, which intended to develop it into a park.

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