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Roosevelt Roads Naval Station

NS Roosevelt Roads
Department of United States Navy
NSRooseveltRoads.png
Roosevelt Roads NS logo
Summary
Airport type Military: Naval Air Station
Operator United States Navy
Location Ceiba, Puerto Rico
Built 1943
In use until 2004
Elevation AMSL 38 ft / 11.58 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
7/25 11,000 3,352.8 Concrete
18/36 CLOSED indef. 5,800 100 Concrete
Helipad Concrete

Coordinates: 18°14′17″N 65°37′40″W / 18.23806°N 65.62778°W / 18.23806; -65.62778

Roosevelt Roads Naval Station is a former United States Navy base in the town of Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The site is run today as José Aponte de la Torre Airport, a public use airport.

In 1919, the future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, toured Puerto Rico, visiting Ceiba. When he returned to Washington, D.C., he expressed a liking for the terrain where the base now is. This was during the World War I era, and the United States could benefit from an air field in Ceiba. While Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, its territorial rights belong to the United States, which made it perfectly feasible, and ideal, for the American government to build an airplane base in Ceiba.

It took many years for the United States Government to become convinced of the need for an air base in Ceiba. When Adolf Hitler and Nazi-led Germany began to invade other European countries, the US, led by then President Roosevelt, entertained the idea of a Naval air station in Ceiba. With war in the European and Pacific theatres, they saw an airbase in the Caribbean as necessary. The base had been inaugurated, but scaled down to maintenance status with a public works office in 1944. From then until 1957, the base went through many shifts, being opened seven times and closed eight times. Meanwhile, it continued as a source of employment for the citizens of Ceiba.


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