Howard Air Force Base
Howard Air Force Base
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| Part of Air Combat Command | |
| Located near Balboa, Panama | |
Howard Air Force Base, Canal Zone, about 1970
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| Coordinates | 8°54′54″N 79°35′58″W / 8.91500°N 79.59944°WCoordinates: 8°54′54″N 79°35′58″W / 8.91500°N 79.59944°W |
| Type | Public |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | United States Air Force |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1939 |
| In use | 1942-1999 |
Howard Air Force Base, (IATA: BLB, ICAO: MPPA), is a former United States Air Force base located in Panama. It discontinued military operations on 1 November 1999 as a result of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which specified that US military facilities in the former Panama Canal Zone be closed and the facilities be turned over to the Panamanian government.
After demilitarization, the facility reopened as Panamá Pacífico International Airport in 2014.
The airport is located 6 miles southwest of Balboa, at the southern (Pacific) end of the Panama Canal. Most of the area around it was uninhabited and formed part of the Panama Canal Zone watershed, although Panama City could be reached by crossing the nearby Bridge of the Americas.
For over 50 years, Howard Air Force Base was the bastion of US air power in Central and South America. In its heyday, it was the center for counter-drug operations, military and humanitarian airlift, contingencies, joint-nation exercises, and search and rescue. It was the hub of Air Force operations in Latin America, boasting fighters, cargo planes, tankers, airborne warning and control system planes, "executive" jets, and search and rescue helicopters. It was also home to a host of army and navy aircraft. Its personnel tracked drug traffickers out of South America, and its cargo planes provided airlift for US Southern Command contingencies, exercises, and disaster relief, and conducted search and rescue in the vast region. Yet only some of the transports, several special-mission C-130s, and executive jets belonged to the host unit, the 24th Composite Wing, later redesignated the 24th Wing (24 WG). Although Regular Air Force C-130 aircraft rotated to Howard for 90-day detachments in the 1970s and early 1980s, in the support mission called CORONET OAK, this mission was later transferred to the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, which then provided C-130s for Volant Oak, as well as A-7 Corsair and later F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters that also rotated into the base.
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