Thousands of men and women from all branches of the military are right here in South Tampa because of MacDill Air Force Base.
In the late 1930s, the area that is now MacDill was pretty much a wasteland.
It took more than 20,000 civilian employees to make this area what is today.
"You'll find airmen, sailors, marines, airmen, you'll find members of the United States Space Force here now and civilian contractors," Stephen Ove, a historian at MacDill's sixth air refueling wing said. "Everybody you can possibly imagine that would be a part of a military base. We're here in one shape or form or another."
It also took a lot of work to make MacDill possible, and without that partnership with the City of Tampa it wouldn't exist.
Today MacDill is also home to central command and SOCOM.
