Naval Air Station Bermuda | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aerial view of NAS Bermuda, 1993. | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military:Naval Air Station | ||||||||||
| Operator | United States Navy | ||||||||||
| Location | St. David's Island | ||||||||||
| In use | 1970 - 1995 | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 12 ft / 4 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 32°21′51″N064°40′43″W / 32.36417°N 64.67861°W /32.36417; -64.67861 | ||||||||||
 Interactive map of Naval Air Station Bermuda | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Naval Air Station Bermuda was aUnited States Navy establishment in the then British Colony ofBermuda from 1940 to 1995. It operated from several locations and under different names during this period. At first, as theNaval Operating Base, it was located onDarrell’s Island, inGreat Sound, before moving in 1941 to a new site onTucker and Morgan Islands in the West End. In the 1960s, as the Naval Air Station, it moved toKindley Field, theUS Army Air Force base onSt David's Island inCastle Harbour, while the West End site became theBermuda Annex. After closure in 1995 the base became the site ofBermuda International Airport.
Prior to American entry into theSecond World War, an agreement was arranged between the governments of British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill and U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt for the loan of a number of obsolete, mothballed ex-US Navaldestroyers to theRoyal Navy and theRoyal Canadian Navy, in exchange for which the USA was granted 99-year base rights in a number of BritishWest Indian territories. ThisDestroyers for Bases Agreement, a forerunner of theLend-Lease Agreement, had the sleight-of-hand effect of placing the defence of those territories in the hands of the neutral USA, allowing British forces to be sent to the sharper ends of the War. Although not part of this exchange, Churchill also granted the US similar base rights inBermuda andNewfoundland, however no destroyers or other war material were received by Britain in exchange.
The grants came as a surprise to theColonial Government, when US engineers arrived in 1940 to begin surveying the colony for the construction of an airfield that was envisioned as taking over most of the West End of the Island. Frantic protests by the Governor and local politicians led to those plans being revised. TheUS Army would build an airfield at the North ofCastle Harbour. The US Navy would build a flying boat station at the West End. The US Navy began initial operation ofAnti-submarine patrols by an Inshore Patrol squadron flyingVought OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes operating from theRoyal Air Force station onDarrell's Island, while its own base was being constructed.[1][2]
Two islands at the western side ofEly's Harbour,Tucker's andMorgan's, were levelled, adding 36 acres (150,000 m2) to Bermuda's landmass, and creating a peninsula extending from the Main Island. The entire base measured 260 acres (1.1 km2). It was not long enough to allow a useful runway, but did have extensivetarmac andhangar areas. LargeMartinflying boats could be pulled ashore for hangarage, and servicing. When the area was first occupied by theUS Navy, it was titled theNaval Operating Base. Once theNaval Air Station was completed, the US Navy relocated its air operations to it from Darrell's Island. The base continued to be used for this purpose until 1965, when the last flying boats were withdrawn from service. US NavyP-2 Neptune landplanes, based at the USAF'sKindley Air Force Base, then took over themaritime patrol role. The former Naval Air Station was redubbed theNaval Air Station Bermuda Annex (NAS Annex). It served primarily as a dock area for US Naval shipping, until the closure of all of the US bases at the end of theCold War, in 1995.
TheUS Navy moved itsanti-submarine air-patrol operations from the old flying boat base, to the USAF Base at Kindley Field when itsMartin P5M Marlinflying boats were removed from service in the 1960s. They were replaced byLockheed P-2 Neptune landplanes, which could not operate from the Annex (the old flying boat base), which had no hard surface runway ashore. The US Navy took over the airfield entirely from the USAF in 1970 and the base continued to operate anti-submarine patrols, first with P-2 Neptunes, then with LockheedP-3 Orions. In the 1980s, the P-3s were occasionally augmented by carrier-basedS-3 Vikings operating ashore, as well as Canadian Forces' LockheedCP-140 Aurora andRoyal Air ForceHawker Siddeley Nimrod MR.2 aircraft.
By the early 1990s, the range ofSubmarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) had so increased thatSoviet submarines no longer found it necessary to come within range of Bermuda-based patrol aircraft in order to strike their targets in the United States. This was followed by the dissolution of theSoviet Union in 1991, and a general lessening of tensions between the USSR's successor state, theRussian Federation and the US.
Reflecting these developments, the US Naval air detachment at Bermuda had been steadily reduced from a full squadron of Regular Navy P-3Cs on six month rotations to an average of three P-3B or P-3C aircraft, primarily from Atlantic FleetNavy Reserve P-3 squadrons on 60-day rotations, plus the air station's ownUH-1N Twin Huey search and rescue aircraft. In 1992, a scathing investigative report bySam Donaldson, ofABC News, labelled the base as the 'Club Med of the Navy', because of its questionable use by senior military officers and DoD civilian and other U.S. Government civilian officials as ade facto vacation retreat.[13] Subsequently, all three US Naval bases in Bermuda were slated for closure byBRAC. Except for theNASAtracking station onCoopers Island (at the Eastern End of NAS Bermuda), all US facilities in Bermuda were closed in 1995.[14][15]
The Bermudian government took over operation of the field in 1995, being obliged to spend a great deal of money making it conform to international civil standards. This involved changes to lighting systems, fencing, and razing any objects over a certain height, within a certain distance of the runway (which included both the former base commander's residence, and the hillock it stood on). The US Government still held the lease, which was for initially set at 99 years back in WWII however, until negotiations were completed regarding the cleanup of toxic waste left behind. The cost of clean-up of all US Navy facilities in Bermuda was then estimated at $65.7 million, although that included $9.5 million for replacing the Longbird Bridge. The final compromise negotiated by the UK, Bermuda, and USA governments, which comprised an $11 million payment for the replacement of Longbird Bridge, has been denounced by many in Bermuda as a betrayal, but the field has now been transferred entirely to the Bermuda Government as theBermuda International Airport. It was an alternative landing site for NASA'sSpace Shuttle.[16]
.jpg)
Areas for clean-up identified in 1997 by a private contractor were:
The estimated cost was $65.7 million:
The lands which hosted the base were formally returned to Bermuda in 2002.[17]
The military base, being self-contained and obeying the laws of its home county, had been very detached from the rest of the island. Without feeling a strong connection to Bermuda, and knowing that their presence was only temporary, the full costs of disposing of sewage and waste fuel on the base was likely never calculated. A 2002 report by the Department of Environmental Protection of the Ministry of the Environment estimated that 520,000 gallons of oil and several tons of raw sewage had been pumped into Bassett's Cave on the former NAS Annex, and a further 55,000 gallons of jet fuel pumped underground 200 ft (61 m) away.
In the decade since the pollution was discovered it has been left almost totally undisturbed. The base is very rarely opened to the public, and all talk of developing the lands has been stonewalled by the Government. The cave formation has kept the oil somewhat contained and the now abandoned base has not been opened to development for fear that the pollution may spread and have catastrophic costs. In order for one to properly analyze the situation, these costs must be well understood.