Qualla: Howard Air Force Base https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Howard Air Force Base https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base Howard Air Force Base: Introduction https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base/ Photo credit Soman, CC BY-SA 3.0. The only five-star general in Air Force history chose the site himself. In May 1939, Major General Henry "Hap" Arnold returned to Panama two decades after leading the first air unit to the Isthmus and picked a patch of jungle 460 meters from the Pacific Ocean for a new air base. He suggested naming it after Major Charles H. Howard, a friend and former subordinate who had flown in Panama in the late 1920s and died in an air crash in 1936. On December 1, 1939, Howard Field became official. What began as a clearing in tropical forest would grow into the bastion of American air power across Central and South America for more than fifty years.

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Image: Soman | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/d1x6-howard-air-force-base-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Howard Air Force Base: Jungle Runway to Cold War Nerve Center https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base/ Photo credit Nils Öberg, CC BY-SA 3.0. Construction crews arrived in 1941, and Howard Field hosted both fighter and bomber aircraft through World War II, guarding the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal. After the war the base went quiet -- inactivated on January 1, 1950, its land turned over to the Army. But geograp...

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Image: Nils Öberg | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/d1x6-howard-air-force-base-jungle-runway-to-cold-war-nerve-center.mp3 0:06 2 full Howard Air Force Base: The Machines of Howard https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base/ Photo credit SSgt. Gary Coppage, USAF, Public domain. At its peak Howard was a remarkably diverse airfield. C-130 Hercules transports rotated through on 90-day detachments under mission names like CORONET OAK and VOLANT OAK, operated by the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard. F-4 Phantoms and later F-16 Fighting Falcons cycled...

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Image: SSgt. Gary Coppage, USAF | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/d1x6-howard-air-force-base-the-machines-of-howard.mp3 0:06 3 full Howard Air Force Base: A Name with Many Lives https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base/ Photo credit United States Air Force, Public domain. Before it was Howard, the site cycled through identities that mirror the Canal Zone's own restless history. Bruja Point Military Reservation in 1928, Fort Bruja in 1929, then Fort Kobbe in 1932 -- named after Major General William A. Kobbe, who died in 1931. The airfield section ...

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Image: United States Air Force | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/d1x6-howard-air-force-base-a-name-with-many-lives.mp3 0:06 4 full Howard Air Force Base: Lowering the Flag https://qualla.com/howard-air-force-base/ Photo credit Gualberto107, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977 made the ending inevitable, though it took two decades to arrive. Department of Defense elements began drawing down more than a year before the December 31, 1999 deadline for returning the Canal Zone to Panama. The last fixed-wing American air...

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Image: Gualberto107 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/6/howard-air-force-base-wp/d1x6-howard-air-force-base-lowering-the-flag.mp3 0:06 5 full