Originally established 11 miles southeast of Red Deer, Alberta in 1940 as a RCAF Manning Depot.

The Royal Air Force took over the property and formed No. 36 Service Flying Training School on 28 September 1941 as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Relief Landing Fields were constructed near Inisifail & Blackfalds.  The station consisted of 7 hangars and 31 other buildings including barracks, service buildings, administrative buildings and six hard surfaced runways.

The station was returned to the RCAF closed on 3 November 1944. Only a small RCAF Signals Unit remained.

The station was  taken over by the Department of Transport and many of the buildings were demolished or moved off site.  Surplus Lancaster bombers were storein the hangars to await disposal.

The post-war growth of the RCAF resulted in many WWII stations being re-activated, along with RCAF Detachment Innisfail. The station re-opened in late 1951 as RCAF Station Penhold and became home to No. 4 Flying Training School, a NATO Flying Training School.  Several new buildings were constructed, including 243 private married quarters, collectively called Mynarski Park, in memory of Andrew Mynarski, VC, the Second World War air gunner who had lost his life trying to rescue his crewmate in a burning Lancaster.  In the early 1960s, additional married quarters were built in Red Deer in a complex known as Vista Village.

The first NATO trainees arrived from Calgary in May 1953, consisting of 22 RCAF trainees, 10 Royal Air Force, 6 French Air Force, 7 Italians and 5 Royal Netherlands Air Force.

The base school was dedicated as Andersons of Craigmyle School in memory of three Red Deer brothers who died in active service with the RCAF, also during the Second World War.  A curling rink was built in 1958, a new and larger control tower in 1961 and a new outdoor swimming pool in 1964.

The NATO flying training program ended in the spring of 1959, but air training with the Harvards continued until 1965 primarily for the RCAF but also for the Royal Canadian Navy and pilots from around the world.

By the late 1950s, the threat of a nuclear war had become so great that the Canadian government decided to construct a secret underground bunker to house the major elements of the government in the event of an emergency. Most Provincial Governments followed suit by building their own bunkers. The Alberta Government chose RCAF Station Penhold for the site of their bunker, staffed by 743 Communication Squadron and also housing the Provincial Warning Centre. A 77,000 square foot bunker was secretly constructed at the station and opened in 1964.

All Government bunkers had a remote communications bunker, located some distance away. This second bunker, usually a single story structure, was staffed exclusively by communications personnel. Penhold's remote communications bunker (17,000 square feet) was constructed several miles south of the station.

43 Radar Squadron opened a Pinetree radar long-range station in February 1964 at a site 14 miles east of RCAF Station Penhold, who provided support to the facility.  The squadron had actually opened 2 years earlier and operated out of a hangar at Penhod until the new site opened.  Most radar personnel lived at the newly constructed Vista Village PMQ area in Red Deer until the mid 1970s.

In May 1965, flying operations ceased at RCAF Station Penhold and Air Defence Command assumed control of the Station. Penhold's airfield was taken over by the city of Red Deer in 1965 and operated as the Red Deer Reginal Airport, remaining so today.

In the summer of 1966, Regional Air Cadet Glider Training School opened at Penhold. Flying training was conducted at both Penhold and the former RCAF Detachment Innisfail.

As a result of the Unification, the Station was re-named CFB Penhold in 1966.

By 1973, the CF Junior Leadership School and the FPS-27 Radar School had opened at the base. The schools remained at the base until disbanded on 23 June 1986.

In the early 1980s, the Air Cadet School began making use again of the former RCAF Detachment Netook as an alternate airfield to the Gliding School at Innisfail. By 1986, the Gliding School moved permanently to Netook.

In 1985, DND announced that the Pinetree Line would be shut down as a part of the North American Air Defence Modernization Plan. Radar equipment at many Canadian Forces Stations was replaced with a new automated system. As a result of this and overall reductions in Canada's Air Force, 43 Radar Squadron disbanded on 1 August 1986 and the radar site was closed.

CFB Penhold was downsized to a Detachment of CFB Edmonton in 1990.

In June 1994, the Air Force Junior Leadership School re-located to CFB Borden and was re-named the Air Command Professional Development Training Centre.

In the mid 1990s, a reorganization and consolidation occurred within the Canadian Military. Several bases were either downsized, merged or closed and as a result, Detachment Penhold closed in 1995. The former base is now the community of Harvard Park.

The communications facility was automated and the personnel responsible for running it were transferred to CFB Edmonton. The bunker was closed in 1993 and sold to a private developer in 1995, only to be bought back by the Federal Government and demolished in June 2001 after it was rumoured that a chapter of the Hells Angels was an expressing interest in aquiring it.

The airfield is now the Red Deer Regional Airport. Most of the original buildings remain in use, including all six hangars, the combined mess, several barracks the firehall, the transportations building and the PMQ homes. The former Penhold School however, now sits vacant.

Although no longer military establishment, the military have not completely abandoned Penhold. A portion of the former base was sectioned off and functions as the Penhold Cadet Summer Training Centre. With a permanent staff of 114 members, the centre carries on the tradition of training airmen and women at Penhold. The former base headquarters building is used by the cadet school.

It is noteworthy that last RCAF Harvard to be flown in an operational mission flew at the Penhold base. It was later given to the Red Deer Flying Club for restoration and maintenance and is currently mounted at the entrance to the Red Deer Regional Airport.

Nothing remains at either the radar site nor the remote communications bunker site.

 

All that remains of RCAF Detachment Blackfalds is one hangar.