Originally Posted by keithl
Karen: I've always thought an airfield was military and an airport civilian. My reason for this is that when I was in the RAF both controllers and pilots used the abbreviation 'field.. Examples; "identified 30 miles north of the field..." or "field in sight". I know the official documents talk about "Military Aerodromes", but no-one would have used aerodrome, or airport when referring to a military airfield. I noticed the difference when I went civvie a few years ago.
Whilst I can see what you're getting at, I don't think you can entirely base any military/civil distinction between Airfield and Airport on the phraseology you quote. As I'm sure you know, the same phrases you quote are also regularly used in civvie ATC, and
"field in sight" appears in CAP 413 as an example of both military and civil phraseology.