Qualla: Wheelus Air Base https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Wheelus Air Base https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base Wheelus Air Base: Introduction https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ The U.S. Ambassador to Libya once called it "a Little America on the sparkling shores of the Mediterranean." Wheelus Air Base had a beach club, a bowling alley, a high school for 500 students, a multiplex cinema, a shopping mall, fast food outlets, a radio station, a television station, and the largest military hospital outside the United States. At its peak, over 15,000 American military personnel and their families lived on a 20-square-mile installation that could have been mistaken for a small American city, except for the 110-to-120-degree Fahrenheit temperatures and the fact that it sat on the coast of North Africa. Today, it is Mitiga International Airport.

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wheelus Air Base: Racing Cars and Reconnaissance Planes https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ The airfield was built in 1923 by Italy's Regia Aeronautica and originally known as Mellaha Air Base. For a decade, it served quietly as a military airfield. Then, in 1933, the roads around the base and the neighboring Mellaha Lake were repurposed for something unexpected: the Tr...

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-racing-cars-and-reconnaissance-planes.mp3 0:06 2 full Wheelus Air Base: From Mellaha to Wheelus https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ The British Eighth Army captured the airfield in January 1943, and the U.S. Army Air Forces moved in the same month. The 376th Bombardment Group of the 12th Air Force used Mellaha to launch B-24 Liberators against targets in Italy and southern Germany. The base also served as a s...

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-from-mellaha-to-wheelus.mp3 0:06 3 full Wheelus Air Base: Little America on the Mediterranean https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ After a brief closure in 1947, Wheelus reopened in June 1948 under the USAF Military Air Transportation Service. Its host unit, the 1603rd Air Transport Wing, flew C-47 Skytrains and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus. When King Idris I was crowned in 1951, U.S. Air Forces ...

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-little-america-on-the-mediterranean.mp3 0:06 4 full Wheelus Air Base: The Flag Comes Down https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ Gaddafi's 1969 revolution changed everything. The new regime demanded the Americans leave, and in 1970 the last U.S. personnel departed. The base was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Airfield after the seventh-century Arab conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi, a pointed historical reference. Soviet mili...

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-the-flag-comes-down.mp3 0:06 5 full Wheelus Air Base: Departures and Arrivals https://qualla.com/wheelus-air-base/ After the bombing, the base was renamed once more, this time as Mitiga International Airport, and gradually transitioned to civilian use. Passengers now walk through terminals where fighter pilots once briefed, and commercial jets taxi on runways that launched B-24 Liberators and...

Read more: Wheelus Air Base on Qualla

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/m/c/7/wheelus-air-base-wp/smc7-wheelus-air-base-departures-and-arrivals.mp3 0:06 6 full