35 cents
VOL. 4/ISSUE 51
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016
Veterans should check for tax benefits Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
Elections get folks thinking about taxes. It’s a good time for veterans to look at their counties’ property appraisers’ websites to find out about exemptions. Many veterans have property tax breaks due them. “Florida is very generous with property-tax exemptions,” Susan Rowe, public service manager at the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser Office, said. Rowe said veterans, like everybody, should start by making sure they’re getting the most common property tax breaks, such as the homestead exemption. While most know about the $50,000 taxable value a ead rules. Another common exemption is $25,000 for people ages 65 and older. “The senior exemption is very popular,” Rowe said. There are a couple catches for that exemption. To qualify, the claimant has to be 65, or older, on Jan. 1 of the tax year, and there are income qualifications. Rowe said that the income qualification changes from year to year. For 2016, the household income cannot exceed $28,482 to qualify for the exemption. There’s a $5,000 exemption available to veterans with service-connected disability ratings of 10 percent or more. Rowe said there’s some confusion about that exemption. “If it’s granted, the exemption reduces the assessed value by $5,000,” she said. “It
See BENEFITS page 7
Photo by Patrick McCallister Members of Riddle Redeemers clean the F-14 Tomcat at the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum. The EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University student club helps the museum restore large artifacts, among other things. The museum is at the DeLaned Municipal Airport.
DeLand museum keeps local Navy history f lying Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
It’s cool to look at historical artifacts, but more so to look at them when standing in the middle of history … next to an F-14 Tomcat. “We’re a federally recognized landmark,” Harold Bradeen, president of the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum, said. The National Park Service placed the museum on its National Register of Historic Places 15 years ago. It’s in a 1930s-era house that the Navy filled during World War II when the DeLand Municipal Airport became the DeLand Naval Air Station for about four years. “This was a civilian airfield,” Bradeen said. “The Navy came in in 1942.” The building became the Chief Master at Arms House. The Japanese attack on the Navy station at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, propelled the United States into war. The City of DeLand quickly offered its small airfield to the military. Less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the Navy was adding runways to the 1920s
airfield and opening a flight school in the renamed DeLand Naval Air Station. “The school advanced to the point that there were 3,500 instructors and students here,” Bradeen said. Trainees, Bradeen said, started at another school learning to fly with the Stearman Model 75. Then they headed to DeLand to continue training with the Lockheed PBO-1 Hudson, the Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, and the Douglass SBD Dauntless. After the war wrapped up, the Navy handed the expanded airport back to DeLand. A military school opened and used many of the Navy’s old buildings until the early ‘70s. The DeLand Municipal Airport was also attracting parachute makers and other skydiving businesses, gaining DeLand the title of, “Skydiving capital of the world.” As the skydiving business grew at the former Navy station, new buildings went up and old ones came down. The little house on Biscayne Boulevard was one of a couple OF World War II era buildings left at the airport. It fell into serious disrepair. Around the 50th anniversary of
See MUSEUM page 8