Kindley Air Force Base

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The former AFB Kindley Field, as it appeared in 2004.

Kindley Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base in Bermuda from 1948–1970. The base was previously known as Fort Bell, and was created as a joint British and American airfield following the U.S. being given free 99-year leases for bases in Bermuda. There were two air stations operating in Bermuda at the start of the Second World War, the civil airport on Darrell's Island, which was taken over by the Royal Air Force for the duration, and the Royal Naval Air Station on Boaz Island. Both of these were limited to operating flying boats as Bermuda's limited, and hilly, landmass offered no obvious site for an airfield. The US built two air bases in Bermuda. The U.S. Navy built a Naval Air Station, also for flying boats, at the West End, and the US Army built the airfield at the East End. Both bases were built by levelling small islands. The US Army levelled several small islands at the North of Castle Harbour to create a landmass contiguous with St. David's Island and Cooper's Island. In 1947, it was decided to separate the U.S. Army Air Forces from the U.S. Army to create a separate air service, the United States Air Force (USAF). Fort Bell, at that time, was re-named U.S. Air Force Base Kindley Field. It was named in honour of an American pilot, Field E. Kindley, who had served with the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War. The USAF continued to operate the base primarily as a refuelling station for trans-Atlantic flights. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the base was also used to operate reconnaissance flights by aeroplanes tracking Soviet shipping in the Atlantic. By the 1960s, with the increase in ranges of transport aircraft, Kindley Field's usefulness to the USAF had rapidly diminished. The US Navy was still operating anti-submarine air patrols from the USNAS Bermuda, at the West End. Whereas the Second World War air patrols had protected merchant shipping in the Atlantic, the Cold War patrols aimed to guard US cities from Soviet submarines armed with ballistic nuclear missile. The Martin flying boats the Navy had used since the War, however, were withdrawn and replaced by landplanes. In 1965, the US Navy moved its air operations to Kindley Field, flying Neptune landplanes. With the airfield having attained vastly greater importance to naval operations, it was transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1970, operating 'til 1995 as USNAS Bermuda. The previous USNAS Bermuda was renamed the USNAS Annex, and served primarily as a dock area. Both bases closed in 1995.