Pinecastle Bombing Range:

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The Law Firm of Weiner, Glass & Reed, L.L.P.; Morgan & Morgan, P.A.; Kennedy & Madonna, LLP and Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor, P.A. have joined together to represent the property owners in the Pinecastle Jeep Bombing Range area of Orlando, FL. The case rises from munitions and bombs having been discovered in the residential and school areas, which remain in the vicinity as a result of this area being used as a bombing range starting in 1943.

History of the Pinecastle Jeep Bombing Range

In 1943, the U.S. Government leased 12,483 acres of land in Orlando (Orange County), Florida to be used as a gunnery and demonstration range for testing and troop instruction in methods of tactical bombing and strafing, or gunfire attacks.

The former Pinecastle Jeep Range was an off-post site for the Pinecastle Army Air Field and the Army Air Force Tactical Center at the Orlando Army Air Base. Range uses included small arms firing, air tactics evaluations and training demonstrations of strafing, practice bombing, air-to-ground rocket firing and high explosive bombing.

In 1946 the Pinecastle Jeep Range was declared surplus and all leases on the land were terminated by December 1947. The site is currently owned by several local government agencies and private individuals for residential, highway/expressway, landfill, and undeveloped pastureland use.

Since July 2007, the Army Corps of Engineers has removed more than 14 tons of bomb debris and destroyed by detonation more than 300 bombs and rockets on the former 12,483-acre Pinecastle Jeep Range off Lee Vista Boulevard. The area is where three planned developments – Vista Lakes, Crowntree Lakes and Tivoli Woods totaling 4,000 homes and Odyssey Middle School were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

For more information please call this toll-free number (888) 581-4754.

Resource Links

Army Corps of Engineers

Orange County Government

Orange County Property Appraisers

Pinecastle Area of Concern Map

Orange County Pinecastle Jeep Range Briefing

News & Articles

• Munitions cleanup continues at Odyssey Middle School
  
  OrlandoSentinel.com – March 4, 2008

  The Army Corps of Engineers plans to destroy 17 more pieces of military munitions found on the ranch property behind Odyssey Middle School in southeast Orlando. Read More

• Texas case may mirror Orlando bombing range site at Pinecastle
  
  OrlandoSentinel.com – March 2, 2008

  The story of homes built on an old bombing range is like déjá vu for some in Arlington, Texas. Read More

• Residents, Army Corps face off over bomb-site cleanup
  
  OrlandoSentinel.com – February 27, 2008

  About two dozen southeast Orlando residents met with Army Corps of Engineers officials Tuesday night in the first of a series of meetings designed to help guide the military in how to best clean up a former World War II bombing range. Read More

• Bomb search to continue
  
  OrlandoSentinel.com February 14, 2008

  On weekdays through the end of February, crews with the Army Corps of Engineers will continue to look for World War II-era munitions and munition debris in the southeast Orlando neighborhoods of Tivoli Gardens and Warwick off Lee Vista Boulevard. Read More