Former US airbase in Libya
Wheelus Air Base
was a
United States Air Force
base located in
British-occupied Libya
and the
Kingdom of Libya
from 1943 to 1970. At one time it was the largest US military facility outside the US. It had an area of 52 km
2
(20 sq mi) on the coast of
Tripoli
. The base had a beach club, the largest military hospital outside the US, a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley and a high school for 500 students. The base had a radio and TV station, and a shopping mall and fast food outlets. At its height it had over 15,000 military personnel and their dependents. Wheelus Air Base was originally built by the
Italian Royal Air Force
in 1923 and was known as
Mellaha Air Base
. Today the facility is known as
Mitiga International Airport
.
World War II
[
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The airfield was constructed in 1923 and used by the Italian Air Force. In 1933 the roads around the airfield and the neighbouring Mellaha Lake became the home for the
Tripoli Grand Prix
motor race.
[1]
Mellaha was used by the German
Luftwaffe
during the
North African Campaign
for short range reconnaissance units, and coastal and naval reconnaissance units. Special weather reconnaissance units also existed at Mehalla. The main Luftwaffe unit stationed at the base was the 2nd Staffel of the Aufklarungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14.
The squadron was equipped with 12 single-engined
Henschel Hs 126
, an aircraft with 2-man crews, which could cover approx 710 km, with a maximum speed of 360 km/h, as well as three
Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
liaison aircraft, and a
Junkers Ju 52
for transport of men and materiel.
The airfield was captured by the British
Eighth Army
in January 1943.
The
United States Army Air Forces
began using Mellaha in January 1943. It was used by the
376th Bombardment Group
(Heavy) of the
12th Air Force
to launch
Consolidated B-24 Liberators
to bomb
Italy
and southern parts of
Germany
.
In addition, Mellaha Field was used by
Air Transport Command
. It functioned as a stopover en route to
Benina Airport
near
Benghazi
or to
Tunis Airport
,
Tunisia
on the North African
Cairo
-
Dakar
transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.
[2]
On 15 April 1945 Mellaha AAF was taken over by
USAAF
’s
Air Training Command
. It was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field (AAF) on 17 May 1945 in honor of USAAF Lieutenant Richard Wheelus who had died earlier that year in a
plane crash
in
Iran
.
Cold War usage by the USAF
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Wheelus AAF was closed on 15 May 1947, then reopened as Wheelus Air Base (Wheelus AB) on 1 June 1948 and transferred to the USAF
Military Air Transportation Service
(MATS). Its host unit under MATS was the 1603rd Air Transport Wing.
With the crowning of
Idris I
in 1951,
United States Air Forces in Europe
(USAFE)-based fighter-bomber units also began using Wheelus AB and its nearby El Uotia Gunnery Range for gunnery and bombing training. A further agreement between the United States and Libya, signed in 1954, granted the US the use of Wheelus and its gunnery range until December 1971.
With its 4,600 Americans, the US
Ambassador
to Libya once called it "a Little America...on the sparkling shores of the
Mediterranean
," although temperatures at the base frequently reached 110 to 120 degrees
Fahrenheit
(43 to 50 degrees
Celsius
).
Military Air Transport Service use
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MATS activated the 1603rd Air Transport Wing at Wheelus on 1 June 1948.
[3]
The wing flew
Douglas C-47 Skytrain
and
C-54s
to
Egypt
,
Saudi Arabia
, and
Cyprus
, and operated the base transport control center until 1952.
Headquarters,
7th Air Rescue Group
, was assigned to Wheelus along with the
58th Air Rescue Squadron
at about this time. They flew
SA-16s
and
H-19s
. The
56th Air Rescue Squadron
, stationed at Sidi Slimane, Morocco, the
57th Air Rescue Squadron
stationed at
Lajes Field
, Azores, and the
59th Air Rescue Squadron
, stationed at
Dhahran Air Base
, Saudi Arabia, were also part of the group.
[4]
The
58th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron
operated out of Wheelus until 1970 when they were relocated to the 67th ARRSQ in the UK. The 58 ARRS flew three
HH-3E
Jolly Green Giant helicopters, and three
HC-130
refueling tankers.
MATS aircraft and personnel from Wheelus participated in
Operation Hajji Baba
in 1952. Also in 1952 the MATS
580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing
was reassigned to Wheelus from
Mountain Home Air Force Base
,
Idaho
. The Wing (later Group) flew special operations in the
Mediterranean
,
Middle East
and
Southwest Asia
until being inactivated in 1956.
The MATS presence was withdrawn and relocated to
Rhein-Main Air Base
, West Germany in January 1953. MATS and later
Military Airlift Command
aircraft were frequent visitors at Wheelus and maintained a small detachment there until the base's closure in 1970.
[3]
Strategic Air Command use
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As the
Cold War
overtook post-Second World War international politics, on 16 November 1950 USAF's
Strategic Air Command
began deploying
B-50s
,
B-36s
,
B-47s
and support aircraft (
KB-29
,
KB-50
, and
KC-97
tankers) from US air bases to Wheelus. The base became one of several SAC forward operating locations in
North Africa
, becoming a vital link in SAC war plans for use as a bomber, tanker refueling and reconnaissance-fighter base.
Wheelus hosted SAC bomber deployments in 45-day rotational deployments, using Wheelus as a staging area for planned strikes against the
Soviet Union
.
SAC's use of Wheelus continued until 1970, when as part of the USAF withdrawal from the base, its rotational deployments ended.
USAFE use
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North American F-86F-20-NH Sabre AF Serial No. 51-13168 of the 431st FIS.
North American F-86D-50-NA Sabre AF Serial No. 52-10054 of the 431st FIS.
North American F-100D-65-NA Super Sabre AF Serial No. 56-2967 of the 20th FBW at Wheelus AB.
Wheelus AB was reassigned from MATS to
United States Air Forces in Europe
(USAFE) on 16 October 1951, under USAFE's
7272nd Air Base Wing
. The 7272nd was later designated the 7272nd Fighter Training Wing and became the host unit at Wheelus AB until the base's closure on 11 June 1970.
The
431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
was activated when the 107th Fighter Squadron of the
Michigan Air National Guard
was ordered to active duty in June 1953. The squadron was reassigned from
Selfridge Air Force Base
and deployed to Wheelus, where it was equipped with 25
F-86Fs
, two
T-33s
, and one
Douglas C-47
. The squadron insignia adorned each side of the center fuselage, over the wing. The tail markings consisted of a red-and-white comet design on the vertical tail. A white lightning flash decorated the red portion of the comet's tail.
In January 1955 the F-86D began to replace the F-86Fs, which were sent to smaller
NATO
air forces. The squadron's tail markings changed with the F-86Ds having two or three horizontal red chevrons starting at the base of the rudder, with the chevron point touching the vertical fin's leading edge and angling towards the upper trailing edge of the rudder. Inside the rearmost chevron was a solid blue triangle. In September 1958, the 431st FIS moved to
Zaragoza Air Base
,
Spain
, and was transferred from USAFE to SAC's 16th Air Force.
On 1 August 1956, the Headquarters of
17th Air Force
moved to Wheelus Air Base, Libya, from
Rabat
,
Morocco
, where it remained until relocating to
Ramstein Air Base
, Germany, on 15 November 1959.
Annual Missile Launch Operation (AMLO)
[
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]
The expanse of Libyan desert was used first by the 701st TMW, then later its successor, the 38th Tactical Missile Wing,
United States Air Forces in Europe
(
USAFE
), beginning in October 1954, with three separate live launch operations for all of the operational squadrons using the
TM-61 Matador
. Operations Suntan (October 1954), Sunburst (June 1955), and Sunflash (March 1956) became annual qualification firings for all Matador squadrons based in Europe. There were 36 Matador launches from Wheelus in 1957, while there were only 13 launches at Cape Canaveral and only 25 from Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, New Mexico during the same time.
The 1958 exercise from 6 October through 19 November, called "Operation Marblehead," took 19 C-130 Hercules and seven C-124 Globemasters just to move the 339 personnel and equipment of the 71st TMS from Bitburg to Wheelus and back. C-47 twin engined transports carried personnel back and forth as well. Not only did the 71st take 13 missiles and the required launchers and checkout vans, but also two complete MSQ units, plus personnel to back up the two Shanicle base units that were permanently installed at Wheelus. The exercise was followed by similar deployments from Hahn Air Base, and later Sembach Air Base, all units of the newly formed 38th TMW. The exercises were moved to Patrick AFB, FL, in 1959 for launches at Cape Canaveral.
The missile launch area was located 24 km (15 mi) east of Tripoli, the remote southern section of the base, away from flight operations.
Detachment 1, 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing
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The
20th Fighter-Bomber Wing
, based at
RAF Wethersfield
UK, established an operational detachment at Wheelus AB, in February 1958. This detachment managed the
USAFE Weapons Training Center
for month-long squadron rotations by the Europe-based USAFE tactical fighter wings.
USAFE units from Europe such as the 36th and 49th TFW's with their
F-84 "Thunderjets"
; the 32nd (Soesterberg, the Netherlands); 431st (Zaragoza, Spain) and 497th (Torrejon, Spain) fighter-interceptor (FIS) squadrons with
F-102 Delta Daggers
and the 50th TFW with
F-100 Super Sabres
practiced weapons delivery and use at Wheelus. In addition, the
United Kingdom
based 20th and 48th TFWs with F-100Ds, and the 81st TFW trained in air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery and delivery of conventional ordnance and nuclear "shapes" at the weapons range about 10 nautical miles (19 km) further east of the air base.
As the
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
replaced most USAFE fighters in the 1960s, Phantom detachments became the predominant activity at Wheelus. USAFE's use of Wheelus continued until 1970, when as part of the USAF withdrawal from the base, desert weapons range training ended.
United States withdrawal
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Oil was discovered in Libya in 1959, and what had been one of the world's poorest countries became comparatively wealthy. The US continued a generally warm relationship with Libya and pursued policies centered on interests in operations at Wheelus Air Base and the considerable US oil interests. During the early 1960s, many children of US oil personnel sent to develop the oil field installations and pipelines were allowed to attend the high school at Wheelus, typically riding buses from residential areas in or near Tripoli. Classes often had to pause briefly while large aircraft were taking off.
The value of the installation had declined with the development of long-range nuclear missiles that had effectively replaced many bombers. Thus Wheelus served primarily as a tactical fighter training facility through the 1960s.
In September 1969
King Idris I
was
overthrown
by a group of military officers centered around
Muammar Gaddafi
. Before the revolution, the US and Libya had already reached agreement on US withdrawal from Wheelus. This proceeded according to plan, and the facility was turned over to the new Libyan authorities on 11 June 1970.
[5]
After 1970
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Following the US withdrawal, the base was renamed
Okba Ben Nafi Airfield
(seemingly after the legendary hero
Uqba ibn Nafi
) and was used by the
Soviet Union
, as well as becoming the headquarters for the
Libyan Air Force
. The base was bombed by the US in 1986 during
Operation El Dorado Canyon
.
The airfield was subsequently renamed
Mitiga International Airport
.
References
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This article incorporates
public domain material
from the
Air Force Historical Research Agency
External links
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