14-inch railroad gun which could move from coast to coast if needed. There were emplacements for these 14-inch railroad guns at : Fort Randolph (2 each), Fort Amador (then Fort Grant) on Culebra Island. This picture looks like it was taken on Culebra Island.
31st Pursuit Squadron P-40 at La Joya Field.
Early Aviation in Panama
Following the Armistice of November 1917,
additional aviation units were assigned to Panama to support the peace-time
security efforts of the other service branches. These units joined the 7th Aero
Squadron at France Field to form the 6th Composite Group, composed of one
observation, one pursuit, and one bombardment squadron and various supporting
elements such as air intelligence, photography, and services. By 1924, the
Army’s air strength in the Canal Zone stood at 57 officers and 623 enlisted men
operating 38 aircraft. Despite constant requests for more airpower and a new
airfield for Canal defense, little congressional funding support was
forthcoming. By 1929, the authorized air complement remained at only 666 men.
These men stayed extremely busy, nevertheless, conducting a wide range of
missions, not all of which were directly related to their military
responsibilities. For example, in the spring of 1923, heavy flooding isolated
parts of Costa Rica from the outside world, cutting roads, railroads, and telegraph
lines. Until service could be restored, the Army Air Service provided airmail
service into San Jose and Port Limon. Air Service flyers also provided
emergency transportation in response to a number of medical crises in remote
areas of Panama, both for American citizens and Panamanian nationals. This kind
of public service activity served to improve relations between the U.S. and its
Central American neighbors. In an effort to foster regular commercial aviation
service to and from the Canal Zone, a new position was created in 1929 for an
advisor to the Governor of The Panama Canal. Air Corps Lieutenant R. T. Zane
was the first to hold the position. Pan American Airways, Inc., commenced
regular air mail service to and from the Canal Zone in February 1929. The next
year, Pan Am began to provide passenger service between Panama, the U.S., and
various points in Mexico, Central America, and the east coast of South America.
Pan America-Grace Airways, Inc., also began service to a number of cities along
South America’s west coast. At this time, all commercial air mail, passenger,
and cargo services into the Canal Zone employed Army airfields and Panama Canal
Department harbors. France Field served as Pan Am’s primary flying field until
1936, when commercial service moved to the recently opened Albrook Field, where
a more serviceable runway was available.58
Albrook Field
The need for an airfield on the Pacific
side of the Panama Canal had become apparent to Army Air Service and Canal
Department officials early in the 1920s. By that time, it had been accepted by
U.S. military planners that the original threat assessment for Canal defense
was obsolete. No longer were naval bombardment and sabotage the only
significant threats to the Canal. Rapid developments in naval aviation —
particularly the aircraft carrier and more advanced and efficient carrier
aircraft — made direct air attack on the Canal more feasible. As a result, the
air defenses of the Canal Zone had to be upgraded to meet this new aerial
threat. France Field was already proving to be too small to accommodate even
the slowly growing Air Service presence in the Canal Zone during the 1920s. Its
location offered no possibility for meaningful expansion, and its landing
surface was already of questionable utility for the larger aircraft in use even
at that time, not to mention the new bombers that the Air Service planned to
field in the near future. Moreover, because it was situated on the Atlantic
side of the Isthmus, Air Service leaders felt that it offered only imperfect
defense against air attack from the Pacific side. It was determined, therefore,
that a substantial new flying field must be established on the Pacific side in
order to provide adequate defense against the growing threat of air attack.59
Requests for needed expansion fell on deaf
ears until the passage of the Air Corps Act of 1926. This act temporarily
settled the long-running debate in military circles regarding the establishment
of an independent Air Force. It stopped short of this reform, but did authorize
the formation of the Army Air Corps, and advocated significant expansion for
the Army’s air arm. The most significant practical impact of the Air Corps Act
was the approval of the Five-Year Plan for Army Aviation. This plan called for a
doubling of the strength of the Air Corps over a 5-year period, and a
corresponding expansion of the Air Corps’ ground facilities. Two new
installations were authorized in the plan. One was a new primary training field
to be located in San Antonio, TX. The other was a new operational flying field
on the Pacific side of the Canal Zone. The primary justification for the
establishment of this new field was the Air Corps’ plan to deploy a new
bombardment group to Panama, and France Field’s inability to accommodate it.
The location chosen for the new field was the old Balboa Fill Landing Field, a
rough auxiliary landing field that was then being utilized during the dry
season.60
The site of this field had once been a
swampy tidal basin, but had been raised over the proceeding ten years by
pumping in material from the Canal mixed with water (hydraulic fill), and
layering dry material on top. By 1922, a temporary hangar was erected in the
middle of the sod field in order to support emergency landing operations. A
detachment of pilots from the 7th Aero Squadron, under the command of Lt.
Frank. P. Albrook, became the active personnel for this new field, known as the
8th Air Park. In November 1924, it was redesignated as Albrook Field, in honor
of the late Lt. Albrook, who had just died following a crash at Chanute Field,
IL. When Albrook Field was selected for expansion under the Five-Year Plan,
much filling and surfacing work remained before any real construction
activities could even begin. The first appropriations for Albrook Field came in
FY28, but covered only housing facilities, providing no funding for technical
construction. Follow-on appropriations in FY29 addressed this lack, but
significant delays in construction resulted from a series of disputes during the
planning stage regarding the placement of the flight line. Actual construction
on the field did not begin until 1930, and was not completed until 1932 — five
years after initial approval of the project.61
Major E. A. Lohman arrived at the expanded
field in 1931 with a detachment of the 44th Observation Squadron from France
Field, composed of eight officer pilots flying three old O-19 observation
aircraft. Their practical duties were mostly limited to towing gunnery targets
for the Coastal Artillery. Construction was still under way at this point, and
even the official boundaries of the reservation were not finalized until 1932.
Since no concrete runways had been provided in the original construction, these
men were forced to operate off of the warm-up apron in front of the three
original hangars, which were still completing construction when they arrived.
With the arrival of the rainy season in 1932, regular flying operations were
forbidden due to the extremely poor quality of the landing field, which became
a muddy lake during heavy rains. In emergencies, the light O-l9s could use the
paved warm-up ramp, but this was not employed for day-to-day flying. On 15
October 1932, following improvements to the drainage system on the field, the
78th Pursuit squadron deployed to Albrook from France Field with their P-12
biplanes. At this point, flying operations picked up, and tactical exercises
took over from the aerial target duties that had dominated previously.
Subsequently, the 78th was split into two squadrons, the 74th and 78th Pursuit
Squadrons, which were augmented by the 44th Observation Squadron. These three
squadrons at Albrook joined others at France Field to form the 19th Composite
Wing, which comprised the entire Army Air Corps contingent in Panama. The total
personnel strength at Albrook in 1934 amounted to 46 officers and 662 enlisted
men, and increased only slowly until the build-up prior to World War II,
although the planned squadron of B-10 heavy bombers did deploy to Albrook in
the form of the 74th Attack Squadron in 1936. Throughout the period, Albrook
Field and the 19th Composite Wing were plagued by insufficient manpower and
funding support, and almost no improvements were made to the base itself. The
much-needed runway paving project was not even begun until 1937, and was not
completed until 1939. Nevertheless, Air Corps personnel succeeded in conducting
regular tactical training operations. Perhaps the most important of these
training activities were the annual Joint Landing Maneuvers conducted by Army
and Navy forces, which served to enhance the readiness of the Canal’s
defenders, and to illuminate areas in which current defense dispositions were
lacking.62
Expansion for World War II
It gradually become apparent to Air Corps
leaders, through lessons learned during these Joint Landing Exercises, that the
air defense of the Canal Zone was growing increasingly inadequate with each
passing year. As early as 1934, the Air Corps requested significant expansion
of its strength in Panama in order to enable it to defeat possible air attacks.
As in the 1920s, rapid improvements in naval aviation made the threat of attack
by aircraft carriers more and more potent. In addition, as the long-range heavy
bombers of the day became increasingly efficient, the threat of attack by
land-based aircraft increased. Moreover, with the expansion of commercial
aviation in Central and South America, the airfields from which such an attack
might be mounted had become far more numerous. Under the command of Brigadier
General Herbert A. Dargue, who assumed command of the 19th Composite Wing in
October 1938, important advances were recommended and accomplished in preparing
the air defenses of the Panama Canal for war. Dargue examined the preliminary
studies on the subject made by students of the Air Corps Tactical School in
1934, and concluded that more attention had to be given to stopping enemy air
attack before it ever reached the Canal Zone. Engaging the enemy over the canal
would be entirely too late to prevent damage or destruction of this vital
strategic asset. Instead, Dargue advocated the establishment of a network of
outlying bases from which to detect and intercept incoming air attacks. Modern
pursuit aircraft were necessary for such an interception mission, and more bombers
were needed to destroy enemy air bases and aircraft carriers before they could
launch attacks. Little, however, was done to improve the situation until after
a brief inspection tour by General H. H. “Hap” Arnold — now
Commanding General of the Air Corps — in May 1939. Immediately following
Arnold’s departure, plans were approved to substantially expand Air Corps
strength in Panama.63
In June 1939, this program of expansion
finally received congressional approval and funding support. Referred to anachronistically
as the Caribbean Air Command Expansion Program, and the Air Force Augmentation
Program, this plan for expansion had actually been advocated by the Air Corps
since 1935. In that year, the Drum Board, a special committee of the Army
General Council, had concluded that American air power lagged dangerously
behind that of other world powers, and called for a significant expansion of
its combat strength and basing facilities. Seven geographical areas within the
continental U.S. had been identified as critical air defense sectors in which
should be established a single major airdrome backed by a system of more
primitive dispersal fields. The Drum Board identified the Panama Canal Zone and
Hawaii as eighth and ninth critical air defense regions, outside the
continental U.S. In 1935, Congress had passed the Wilcox Act, which authorized
the necessary expansion of the Air Corps’ airfield network, but funding was
only gradually approved to allow for the authorized building programs. Since
the expansion program required an immense increase in the manpower at Albrook,
much of the new construction was dedicated to barracks quarters. In addition, a
small amount of technical construction was also included for the flight line,
and some for the establishment of the Panama Air Depot (PAD) on the east side
of the Albrook reservation. Landscaping advice and assistance at expansion Army
and Navy posts was done by the landscape unit of The Panama Canal.64
As of December 1939, Albrook’s personnel
strength stood at 77 officers and 1,721 enlisted men. New troops were scheduled
to begin arriving in August 1940 at the rate of 150 men per month. No housing
facilities were available at that time, so an emergency appropriation of
$400,000 was approved to begin construction of temporary barracks at Panama
Canal Department installations to house the expected flow of reinforcements.
Plans for the permanent construction quickly passed through the Quartermaster
Corps’ Construction Division, but after that delays were immediately encountered.
As a result, no construction began at Albrook until July 1940 — a year after
the funds had been released, and only a month before the first recruits
arrived. While the temporary barracks projects helped somewhat to alleviate the
inevitable overcrowding as Albrook’s manpower rapidly expanded, housing
remained a real problem at the base until well into the war. Many new arrivals
were forced to go without proper quartering, with the majority being housed in
one or two of the hangars and in tent camps. It was not until early 1942 that
the permanent housing facilities reached completion, and even then some
quartering problems remained.65
Howard Field
The increasing limitations of France Field,
coupled with larger and heavier airplanes, made the creation of a new airfield
a necessity. The justification given for the necessity of a new field had been
that the present field was too small for the operation of modem aircraft, the
coral surface couldn’t support the new planes, and the coral surface by its constant
sinking made maintenance unreasonably expensive.66
As early as 1937, the Fort Kobbe Military
Reservation had been selected as the site for the future air base. The $50
million appropriation for upgrading Canal defenses provided the funding to create
the new facility, and plans were made definite on 12 July 1939. The
Quartermaster General began drawing up specific plans, upon completion of which
construction could begin. The development of Howard Field encountered the same
contractual delays as other Panama Canal Department projects, and the designs
for the hangars were altered, causing a delay of many months.67
Plans for personnel were more advanced, as
there was little time to waste. The new air base was needed quickly, as
existing plans indicated an increase from the August 1939 level of 63 officers
and approximately 1,390 enlisted men to 140 Air Corps officers and 4,000 Air
Corps enlisted men (by 225-man monthly increments) by June 1940. A September
1940 estimate included plans for stationing at Howard Field the Headquarters
and Headquarters Squadron of the Panama Canal Air Force and the 19th
Bombardment Wing, the 6th and 9th Bombardment Groups, the 59th Bombardment
Squadron, the 7th and 44th Reconnaissance Squadron, and the l6th Air Base
Group. It was estimated that the above units would house 3,198 enlisted men and
413 officers. The new arrivals were quartered in temporary facilities at Rio
Hato air field until the housing facilities at Howard were ready to be
occupied.68
General Netherwood, Commanding General of
the 19th Bombardment Wing, established priorities in March 1941 for the
occupation of Howard Field. No troops were to be transferred until the
construction of permanent facilities had advanced to the point where continuing
construction work would not impede the mission of the base. The Air Base Group,
Headquarters Squadron of the 19th Bombardment Wing, and several service
detachments were considered first priority. Next would be the 9th Bombardment
Group and the 59th Bombardment Squadron, currently at Rio Hato. These would be
followed by the 6th Bombardment Group and the 7th and 44th Reconnaissance
Squadrons. The 16th Air Base Group arrived from France Field on or about 5 May
1941, and General Netherwood took command of the Howard Field-Fort Kobbe
Military Reservation on 15 May 1941.69 On 20 June 1941, the status of Fort
Kobbe was changed from being a sub Amador to an independent post containing
Howard Field. The Base Commander of Howard Field became Post Commander.70
Shortly thereafter, other troops to be stationed at Howard Field began to
arrive:71
#
Four companies of the 550th Airborne
Battalion on 1 July; units of the 501st Parachute Battalion on 7 July; the 44th
Reconnaissance Squadron (from Albrook) on 8 July; six days later the 74th
Bombardment Squadron, also from Albrook; early in August the 46th Signal
Platoon, the 325th Signal Company, to be followed sometime later in the month
by the 59th Bomb Squadron (L) from Rio Hato; in October the 10th Quartermaster
Company, and late in November the 7th Reconnaissance Squadron.
Growing tensions in Europe and the Far East
spurred a rapid modernization and expansion of the 19th Composite Wing’s
aircraft complement, and contributed to a series of organizational changes in
the air defense of the Panama Canal. To shift the defense focus from attacking
a hostile force from the few ground installations in the Canal Zone to one of
regional defense, it was necessary to radically expand the geographic reach of
the air defense. As outlying bases were acquired and developed, the Air Force
was repeatedly reorganized to maintain efficiency in the operation of remote
installations. This expansion served to fulfill the mission of the Panama Canal
Department Air Force, which was to “detect and defeat an enemy force on
the outer rim of the defense arc, or if necessary, to destroy enemy planes
which had broken through that arc to the inner defenses of the Canal.”72
In early 1939, the 19th Composite Wing
operated only 28 medium bombers, 14 light bombers, and 24 pursuit planes, plus
a few trainers and utility planes. This meager force was clearly not up to
defending the Canal in time of war. As soon as the new runway at Albrook Field
was completed in April 1939, the obsolescent B-10s of the Wing were replaced
with 30 new B-18 long-range medium bombers. In August of that year, following
the German invasion of Poland, 30 new P-36 fighters were also sent to Albrook
to provide more modern combat aircraft for the defense of the Canal. November
1940 brought a significant air defense reorganization in response to the
alarming German military successes of May and June. With the fall of France and
German successes in North Africa, new threats developed to the Panama Canal —
and to South America and the Caribbean in general. Direct attack of South
America from Dakar appeared to be a real possibility, and Vichy control of
French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadaloupe provided even closer bases for the
potential enemy. In response, the War Department authorized the formation of
the Panama Canal Air Force on 20 November 1940, which took on the task of
defending U.S. interests in Panama and in Central and South America. General
Frank M. Andrews became its first commanding general. In May 1941, President
Roosevelt declared a state of unlimited emergency, and called for accelerated
preparations for war. August of that year brought the formation of the
Caribbean Air Force — still under General Andrews as Commanding General,
Caribbean Defense Command — which assumed unilateral command of all Army Air
Force and Navy aviation assets in the Caribbean region in order to provide
coordinated air defense for the region. This organization assumed command over
a much larger geographic area, and included the many new bases throughout the
Caribbean that had been acquired from the British through the Lend-Lease
program. In addition, troop strength had increased markedly — as of 11
December 1941, the Caribbean Air Force consisted of and estimated 1,112
officers and 14,974 enlisted men.73
A number of new aircraft arrived during the
summer of 1941 to supplement the small and aging complement of aircraft already
in place. By late August, the 19th Bombardment Wing had 26 B-18’s, 21 B-18A’s,
9 B-17B’s, 12 A-20A’s, and 3 A-17’s, all destined for Howard Field. The 12th
Pursuit Wing at Albrook possessed 64 P-40C’s, 2 P-40B’s, 11 P-26A’s, and 16
P-36A’s. In Late November, all eight B-17’s in the Department were concentrated
at Howard Field for more efficient maintenance and operation. The acquisition
of these aircraft gave a boost to the Air Force training program, but it
continued to be operating at a disadvantage. The rapid escalation of troop
numbers meant a high percentage of raw recruits and a serious shortage of
experienced officers. The high incidence of station changes interrupted
training as logistics had to be restored, and quite often the bases were still
under construction, requiring base function work of men who were supposed to be
busy with training. Nevertheless, every effort was made to prepare the Air
Force for combat situations, and joint exercises were conducted in the autumn
of 1941 utilizing the bomber, pursuit, and antiaircraft artillery units for
simulated bombing attacks.74
World War II
Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, the War Department instructed its department commanders to put the
Rainbow 5 plan into effect. This was the Orange Plan, which identified the
Japanese as the primary aggressor, and singled out the Panama Canal as one of
the key defense initiatives. General Andrews’ requests for immediate
reinforcements therefore met with a positive reaction from the War Department,
and a number of new units were deployed to Panama as a result. Overall manpower
within the Department expanded from about 28,000 men at the close of 1940, to
about 31,000 by December 1941, and to a peak of over 66,000 by early 1943.75
During the last week in December 1941 the Air Task Force was organized, with
oversight of all Army and Navy air assets in Panama and the Caribbean and Pacific
naval frontiers. Its mission was to locate, track, and attack any enemy force
encountered in these areas. Command was given to the Commanding General of the
6th Bomber Command of the recently formed 6th Air Force. In effect, Atlantic
security was left to Navy elements, who concentrated on the German submarine
threat, while Army aircraft concentrated around the Pacific approaches to the
Canal area. By August, it appeared to military intelligence authorities as
though the submarine threat was receding, as the Germans withdrew from the
Caribbean to safer hunting grounds in the Atlantic. The reduction of this
threat left Atlantic units available for increased patrols in the Pacific
sector.
Serving as a bomber and fighter base,
Howard Air Base was assigned P-38’s, P-39’s, and P-40 fighters along with
B-17’s, B-18’s, B-24’s, B-25’s, B-26’s, and A-20 bombers. In order to explore
the effects of their tactical abilities, a simulated bombing run on the Howard
Air Base runway was conducted in 1942. Explosive charges under one end of the
runway were ignited without warning, to see the damage produced and to test the
repair crews. The 23-ft diameter crater was filled and other damage repaired
within six hours, when the runway re-opened for business.76
As the threat of attack was beginning to
recede, Albrook Air Base began a training mission that continued until 1989.
The Air Force School of the Military Training Center of the Panama Canal
Department, located at the PAD, opened in 1943 to train Latin American Air Forces.
The first class consisted of one officer and ten enlisted men from Peru who
signed up for three months of apprentice training.77
In April 1943, the Canal Defense Category
was downgraded from “D” to “B” status, with a corresponding
reduction in the number of patrol tracks expected to be flown each day. With
this development, the Navy split its patrol assets between the Caribbean and
Pacific sectors, leaving Army assets free to act as a strike force in time of
need. No sooner had this new patrol system come into effect than the Germans
began to renew their submarine efforts in the Caribbean and Army assets had to
be released to supplement Naval patrols in that area. From November 1943 to
April 1944, Army aircraft conducted patrols in support of the Navy, but no
combat engagements occurred. Throughout the entire course of the war, in fact,
the 6th Air Force engaged in only two combat engagements against German U-boats
in the Caribbean, damaging one on 6 July 1942 and sinking another on 22 August
1942. The bulk of its patrol operations were conducted without major contact
with the enemy, and the war passed relatively quietly in and around Panama.78
20 The Panama Canal, Annual Report of the
Governor of The Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30.1917,
(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1917),75.
21 Board of Officers to Brigadier General
A. Cronkhite, U.S.A., August 28, 1917, File 13-U-2/25, Part 2, January 1,
1916-April 30, 1934, General Records 1914-34, Records of The Panama Canal,
1914-1950, Record Group 185, National Archives, Washington, DC.
22 “The Army and Navy: The military
and naval activities on the Canal Zone are important elements of the Canal
enterprise,” in Panama Canal & Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. 1914-1939,
(Mount Hope, Canal Zone: The Panama Canal Press, 1939), 93-94.
23 Dolores De Mena, “History of the
United States Army in the Panama Canal Area,” Unpublished manuscript,
USARSO History Office, Ft. Clayton, Panama, 1994, 4.
24 Canal Record, (Canal Zone), 13 June
1917, 515.
25 “The Army and Navy,” 94; John
R. Baldwin, “History of the Panama Canal Department,” Infantry
Journal 26 (April 1925): 367-368; De Mena, “History of the United States
Army in the Panama Canal Area,” 4.
26 T. S. Voss, “The Army Air
Service,” Infantry Journal 26, (April 1925): 417.
27 Baldwin, “History of the Panama
Canal Department,” 369; De Mena, “History of the United States Army
in the Panama Canal Area,” 4-6.
28 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 1, Introduction and
Historical Background 1903-1939 (n.p., 1949), 48; “The Army and
Navy,” 94.
29 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 1, Introduction and
Historical Background 1903-1939, 49-50.
30 U.S. Senate, Background Documents
Relating to the Panama Canal, Committee on Foreign Relations, (Washington,
D.C.: GPO, 1977), 972-975; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 4-5.
31 The Panama Canal, The Third Locks
Project, (Canal Zone, Panama: The Panama Canal, 1941), 1-4; John Hannaman, interview
by Susan Enscore, 8 February 1994, Directorate of Engineering and Housing
Office, Corozal, Panama.
32 Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, and
Byron Fairchild, The Western Hemisphere: Guarding the United States and Its
Outposts, Vol. 12 of United States Army in World War II, ed. Stetson Conn
(Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1964), 319-32 1.
33 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 4, The Reconversion
Period 1945-1947, (n.p.: Panama Canal Department, 1949), 85.
34 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 2, Preparation for War
1939-1941 (n.p., Panama Canal Department, 1949), 50-51.35 Susan Harp,
“Panama Canal Defense Vital During Second World War,” Panama Canal
Spillway, 2 July 1993; Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the United
States and Its Outposts, 309; Panama Canal Department Historical Section, of
the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 2, Preparation for War 1939-1941, 53, 67.
36 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 302.
37 Ibid., 302-3
38 Harp, “Panama Canal Defense Vital
During Second World War,” 2 July 1993.
39 Harp, “Panama Canal Defense Vital
During Second World War,” 2 July 1993 and 5 November 1993; Conn, Engelman,
and Fairchild, Guarding, the United States and Its Outposts, 304, 310-316.
40 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 306-309, 344-348.
41 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 3, The War Period 1941 –
1945, (n.p., Panama Canal Department, 1949),192.
42 Ibid., Vol. 4, The Reconversion Period
1045-1947, 50, 86.
43 Ibid., 327-335.
44 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 409-412; Panama Canal Department, History
of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 3, The War Period 1941-1945, 1-3.
45 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 412.
46 Harp, “Panama Canal Defense Vital
During Second World War,” 2 July 1993.
47 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 424.
48 Ibid., 414.
49 Ibid., 437.
50 Ibid., 441.
51 De Mena, “History of the United
States Army in the Panama Canal Area,” 9.
52 Ibid., 11, 14
53 U.S. Senate, Background Documents,
921-923, 975-979; U.S. Senate, Chronology, 6; Almon R. Wright, “Defense
Sites Negotiations between the United States and Panama, 1936-1948,”
Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 27, 11 August 1952, 212-217; Paul Ryan, The
Panama Controversy: U.S. Diplomacy and Defense Interests, (Stanford, CA: Hoover
Institution Press, 1977), 28-31; Paolo E. Coletta, ed., United States Navy and
Marine Corps Bases Overseas, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 259; U.S.
Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC, Operational
Archives.
54 U.S. Senate, Chronology, 7-9; U.S.
House, Panama Canal- 1971: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Inter-American
Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, (Washington, DC: GPO, 1971), 18,
30-31, 35-37, 114; Knapp and Knapp, Red, White-and Blue Paradise, 54-59;
William Jorden, Panama Odyssey, (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984),
38-49; Coletta, Navy and Marine Corps Bases Overseas, 259-260.
55 U.S. Senate, Chronology 9-36; U.S.
Senate, “Defense, Maintenance and Operation of the Panama Canal, Including
Administration and Government of the Canal Zone — Hearings before the
Committee on Armed Services,” (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1978), 62-63, 83-84,
139, 164-165, 258-259; Coletta, Navy and Marine , 260-26 1; Knapp and Knapp,
Red, White, and Blue Paradise, 47; Robert A. Pastor, “The Carter
Administration and Latin America: A Test of Principle,” Occasional Paper
Series, Volume II, Number 3, (Atlanta: The Carter Center of Emory University,
1992), 11-13.
56 De Mena, “History of the United
States Army in the Panama Canal Area,” 13
57 Murray, Panama Chronology: U.S. Air
Corps & U.S. Air Force, (n.p.: U.S. Air Force South, n.d.), 4-6; Panama
Canal Department Historical Section., History of the Panama Canal Department,
Vol. 1, Introduction and Historical Background 1903-1939, 14-15; Historical
Section, Sixth Air Force, History of the 6th Air Force, 1939, 5; “Land
Holdings of the Armed Forces in the Canal Zone, 1956, ” (Quarry Heights,
Canal Zone: Panama Area Joint Committee, Headquarters Caribbean Command, 1956),
3-4, 9; “Land Holdings of the Armed Forces and the Federal Aviation Agency
in the Canal Zone, (Quarry Heights, Canal Zone: HQ USARSO, HQ USAFSO, and HQ
USNAVSO, 1970),2; Robert C. Sullivan, 24th Wing Historian, Howard Air Force
Base, written comments, 7 November 1996, 1.
58 Voss, “The Army Air Service,”
417-420; Panama Canal Department Historical Section, History of the Panama
Canal Department. Vol. 1, Introduction and Historical Background 1903-1939,
93-94; The Panama Canal, Annual & Report of the Governor of the Panama
Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1929, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1929),
59-61, 77; The Panama Canal, Annual Report of the Governor of the Panama Canal
for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1930, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1930), 103;
Canal Record (1929), 384; Historical Section, Sixth Air Force, History of
Albrook Field: Introduction, 1931-1938, (Canal Zone, Panama: Sixth Air Force,
n.d.), Enclosure #45.
59 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 301-302.
60 Robert Frank Futrell, Ideas, Concept.
Doctrine: Basic Thinking in the United States Air Force, 1907-1960, Vol. I,
(Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1989), 31-39, 51-53; Maurer Maurer,
Aviation in the U.S. Army. 1919-1939, (Washington, DC: Office of Air Force
History, USAF, 1987), 191-221; Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, The Air
Forces in World War II Vol. 1. Plans and Early Operations January 1939 to
August 1942 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 29.
61 Jerold E. Brown, Where Eagles Land:
Planning and Development of U.S. Army Airfields, 1910-1941, (New York:
Greenwood Press, 1990), 74, 80, 165; “Hearings, War Department
Appropriation Bill, 1929, Part I, “before the Subcommittee of the House
Committee on Appropriations, 70th Congress, 1st Session, (Washington, D.C.:
GPO, 1928), 325, 459; “Hearings, War Department Appropriation Bill, 1930,
Part I, before the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, 70th
Congress, 2nd Session, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1928), 327-328; “Hearings,
Army Construction, ” before Subcommittee No. 2 of the House Committee on
Appropriations, 70th Congress, 2nd Session, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1929), 4;
“Hearings, Construction at Army Air Corps Posts, ” before
Subcommittee No. 2 of the House Committee on Appropriations, 70th Congress, 2nd
Session, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1929), 4, 27-28; Albert A. Mittag,
“Albrook Flying Field in the Canal Zone,” Civil Engineering, Vol. 4,
no. 7, July 1934:340-344; Murray, Panama Chronology pp. 7-8; Historical
Section, Sixth Air Force, History of Albrook Field: Introduction, 1931-1938,
Enclosures #4, #19.
62 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department. Vol. 1, Introduction and
Historical Background 1903-1939, 75-77, 95-96, Historical Section, Sixth Air
Force, History of Albrook Field: Introduction, 1931-1938. Enclosure #8; Conn,
Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, 303;
Sullivan, written continents, 1.
63 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 301-303; Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 1, Introduction and
Historical Background 1903-1939, 78-86 and Vol. 2, Preparations for War:
1939-1941, 150; Historical Section, Sixth Air Force, History of the Sixth Air
Force, 1939, 11-15.
64 Brown, Where Eagles Land, 95-98;
Futrell, Ideas, Concepts. Doctrine, 67-68; Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 1, Introduction and
Historical Background 1903-1939, 17; Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Sixth Air Force, 1939, 19-21; Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild,
Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, 309; The Panama Canal, Annual
report of the Governor of the Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30,
1940, (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1940), 69.
65 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 2, Preparations for War:
1939-1941, 34, 46, 50; Historical Section, Sixth Air Force, History of the
Sixth Air Force, 1939, 19-21; Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the
United States and Its Outposts, 312-313, 316.
66 Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the 19th Wing, A.C., 1 January 1940 – 20 November 1940, (Canal Zone,
Panama: Sixth Air Force), 35.
67 “Hearings Before the Subcommittee
of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Seventy-Fifth
Congress on the Military Establishment Appropriation Bill for 1939,”
(Washington: D.C.: GPO, 1938), 476. Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Sixth Air Force, 1939, 19-20.
68 Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Sixth Air Force, 1939, 1, 3, 23; Historical Section, Sixth Air
Force, History of the Panama canal Department Air Force- 20 November 1940 – 8
May 1941, (Canal Zone, Panama: Sixth Air Force, 1944), Enclosures #56, #57.
69 Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Panama Canal Department Air Force, 20 November 1940 – 8 May
1941, 45, 47.
70 Johnson, American Legacy in Panama, 42;
Dolores De Mena, The Era of U.S. Army Panama, (Fort Clayton, Panama: History
Office, Headquarters, U.S. Army South, 1996), 181.
71 Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Panama canal Department Air Force- 20 November 1940- 8 May 1941,
117-118.
72 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department, Vol. 4, The Reconversion
Period 1045-1947, 88.
73 Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding
the United States and Its Outposts, 303-304, 312, 334, 349; Historical Section,
Sixth Air Force, History of the Caribbean Air Force, 8 May 1941 – 6 March 1942,
Vol. 1, (Canal Zone, Panama: Sixth Air Force, 1945), 1, 261; Murray, Panama
Chronology, 14-15.
74 Historical Section, Sixth Air Force,
History of the Caribbean Air Force- 8 May 1941 – 6 March 1942, Vol. 1, 282-286,
321, 332.
75 Panama Canal Department Historical
Section, History of the Panama Canal Department. Vol. 2, Preparations for War:
1939-1941, 46, 50; Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the United States
and Its Outposts, 412.
76 De Mena, Era of U.S. Army Installations,
181.
77 A. Glenn Morton, “The
Inter-American Air Forces Academy,” Air University Review, n.d., 16.
78 Charles Morris, Security and Defense of Panama Canal. 1903-2000 (Balboa Heights, Republic of Panama: Panama Canal Commission Printing Office, 1995), 90-96; Conn, Engelman, and Fairchild, Guarding the United States and Its Outposts, 436.
