Waller Air Force Base

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Coordinates: 10°36′48.87″N 061°12′48.30″W / 10.6135750°N 61.2134167°W / 10.6135750; -61.2134167
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Waller Air Force Base
Sixth Air Force
Arima, Trinidad and Tobago
Waller AFB is located in Trinidad and Tobago
Waller AFB
Waller AFB
Coordinates10°36′48.87″N 061°12′48.30″W / 10.6135750°N 61.2134167°W / 10.6135750; -61.2134167
TypeMilitary airfield
Site information
Controlled byUnited States Air Force
Site history
Built1941
In use1941-1949

Waller Air Force Base is a former

Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and roughly 32 km from the capital city Port of Spain
.

History

The American rights to the airfield were obtained via the

British possessions
in the Americas.

In 1941, Trinidad was alarmed by a large number of

Vichy French controlled island of Martinique as a possible supply facility. Although the first United States Army personnel arrived on Trinidad on 24 April 1941, it was only after the United States' entry into the war, that Allied planners, in early 1942, decided to counter the Nazi threat by establishing major air and naval facilities on Trinidad, Naval Base Trinidad
.

Waller Army Airfield was activated on 1 September 1941 with the assignment of the 92d Service Group. The unit's mission was to establish a flying facility within the

Caribbean Air Force
.

Langley Field
on 11 December 1937. The airfield was intended to have four runways, but the two southern ones were cancelled due to the nature of the ground.

Waller was built to be the premier US combat airbase in Trinidad, but events overtook the plan. The South Atlantic Air Route to Europe quickly developed and became the most often used method of getting aircraft to the African and European theaters of war.

Freetown Airport, Sierra Leone and then to North Africa or England. Airfield congestion at Waller became so acute that the combat aircraft, the bombers actually confronting the U-boats, had to be moved out to Edinburgh (Carlsen) Airfield
when it was completed.

With the establishment of United States bases on Trinidad and other Caribbean islands, the Nazi menace was eliminated by the action of numerous air and naval patrols. In 1943, President Roosevelt visited Waller Field on his way to the Casablanca Conference in North Africa.

Major units assigned

*Reassigned from

Mediterranean Theater
to the United States

In addition to the combat and transport flying units, Waller Field was also used as an aircraft maintenance and supply facility by the 24th Air Depot (

Air Technical Service Command) which was deployed from Kelly Field, Texas
on 20 January 1942. It was also used as a long-range reconnaissance base by several photo-recon squadrons.

Postwar use

With the end of World War II Waller Airfield was reduced in scope to a skeleton staff. It was redesignated Waller Air Force Base on 26 March 1948, by the Department of the Air Force General Order Number 10.

Its primary use was by

Borinquen AFB, Puerto Rico and by the MATS 6th Weather Squadron (Regional), which provided meteorological reports for aviation in the South Caribbean as well as tropical storm and hurricane reporting. President Harry S. Truman
stopped at Waller Field on 31 August 1947 on his way to Brazil during a South American visit.

Waller AFB was closed on 28 May 1949 due to budgetary cutbacks and MATS operations were shifted to bases in the Panama Canal Zone.

After the base's closure, it became the informal home of various types of racing (using former airstrips) for over 40 years. Today construction progresses on the former airfield site of the Tamana InTech Park, a science and technology park for industries, several housing developments, and the new University of Trinidad and Tobago campus complex.[1]

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

  • Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History.
    ISBN 0-89201-092-4
    .
  • Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.
    OCLC 72556
    .
  • USAFHRA Microfilm 01023751. History of Waller Air Force Base (1942-1950)
  • Truman Library photos of President Truman at Waller Field
  1. ^ "Tamana InTech Park". www.investt.co.tt. Retrieved January 5, 2021.

External links

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