Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domain23 Royal Air Force trainees killed in WWII flight training rest here under the Union Jack — with phantom aircraft still heard overhead
N Lee Ave & Livingston Ave, Arcadia, FL 34266
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public cemetery; no admission charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat maintained grounds with paved paths near the RAF section
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1941 · No. 5 British Flying Training School (WWII) · Commonwealth War Graves Commission site · 23 RAF cadets killed in training 1941-1943 · Annual Memorial Day service since 1946
When the United States entered the Second World War, Britain needed pilots faster than its own training infrastructure could produce them. The Arnold Plan — a joint arrangement between the RAF and the U.S. Army Air Corps — established six British Flying Training Schools across the American South, where the weather permitted year-round flying. No. 5 BFTS was headquartered at Carlstrom Field, a WWI-era airstrip outside Arcadia, Florida, which was reopened and expanded under the Lend-Lease Act. The first class graduated in 1941.
Flight training is inherently dangerous, and the Arcadia program was no exception. Over the course of the war, 23 British cadets were killed in accidents at or near Carlstrom Field. Each was interred in a specially designated section of Oak Ridge Cemetery, a 30-by-100-foot plot edged by a raised concrete curb and marked with a Union Jack flagpole. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission — the British body responsible for maintaining the graves of Commonwealth service personnel worldwide — has cared for the site since the war's end.
The connection between Arcadia and Britain deepened over the decades. American flight instructor John Paul Riddle, one of the civilian instructors who trained the cadets, later requested burial alongside his former students. His wish was honored. The Arcadia Rotary Club began organizing a Memorial Day service at the cemetery in 1946, a tradition that has continued every year since, drawing over 100 attendees and representatives of the British consulate.
The site is listed as a recognized WWII historical site by the Museum of Florida History. DeSoto County's tourism office formally designates the memorial as a heritage attraction.
Sources
The paranormal accounts at Oak Ridge Cemetery cluster around the RAF section rather than the wider grounds. Visitors describe hearing aircraft engine sounds — described as propeller-era rather than modern jets — above the memorial plot on calm days when no planes are visible overhead. A dark figure has been observed moving between the military headstones and leaving objects at graves; witnesses who approached found no one present.
The Union Jack flagpole produces its own category of reports. Several visitors have described the flag descending to half-mast without any visible person at the rope, or the halyard cleat sounding against the metal pole despite little wind. One account, documented by the Tripping on Legends podcast, involved the flag apparently removing itself entirely before reappearing.
Separate from the RAF section, a stone funerary statue elsewhere in the cemetery has accumulated reports of spoken interactions — visitors describing brief, audible exchanges before realizing no living person was present. Audio recorders brought to the site have reportedly captured unexplained voices.
No structured paranormal investigations or documented EVP captures by named organizations have been reported. The accounts are predominantly visitor testimonials gathered by paranormal travel writers.
Media Appearances
The British plot occupies a 30-by-100-foot raised-curb section of the cemetery, marked by a Union Jack flagpole and Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones for 23 RAF cadets. The Arcadia Rotary Club has held a Memorial Day service here every year since 1946.
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