11125+
web files in a constantly updated compendium on Bermuda's business, culture,
cuisine, customs, districts, economy, education, food, geography, government,
history, internet access, laws, parishes, politics, religions, traditions,
wildlife etc. For tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers,
researchers, retirees, scholars. Funded by and linked to The
Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper.
By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online
To refer by e-mail to this file use "bermuda-online.org/milquit" as your Subject
His other files on Bermuda relating to military matters and civil aviation include Airlines serving Bermuda - American Bases in Bermuda from 1941 to 1995 - American Military Personnel in Bermuda (part 1) - American Military Personnel in Bermuda to 1995 - Bermuda Aviation History Pioneers Civilian and Military - Bermuda International Airport - British Army in Bermuda to 1953 - British Military Graveyards in Bermuda.
The Bermuda Islands, where two major US military bases, built from scratch in 1941-2 and financed solely by taxpayers in the USA - not by Bermuda - flourished until 1995. At one point, there were four US bases in Bermuda. When the USNAS and US Naval Annex left in 1995, The Bermuda Government immediately took over, relocated many civilian organizations there and destroyed some buildings deemed unsafe. In March 2002, Bermuda's legislators enacted the United States Bases (Termination of Agreement) Act 2002. It formally terminated the US leases. The US Government has made a one-off payment of US$ 11 million to replace Longbird Bridge which was included in the lease. but will not pay financial compensation for what the Bermuda Government claims is environmental damage including heavy metals, asbestos, 500,000 gallons of jet fuel and raw sewage in Bassett's Cave at the old US Naval Annex.
Update: Virtually nothing is left of the USA military occupation now at what used to be Fort Bell of the US Army, then USAAF, then Kindley Air Force Base of the USAF from 1948 to 1970 and a US Naval Air Station from 1970 to 1995. Photos in this website are of the facilities there on May 1, 1995. All have since been removed for civilian re-development, not unexpectedly given that over 3,200 people per square mile live in the mere 21 miles of total land area in Bermuda.
They were in Bermuda from and to the dates shown. They all lived at Long Bird House, on the base, once the property of American millionaire William Marcus Greve, who in 1941, before construction of the base, owned 39 of original Long Bird Island's 62 acres. Having made his fortune in real estate and finance, he renounced his American birthright and became a citizen of tax-free Liechtenstein. He was well on the way to building himself a palatial mansion on Long Bird Island when the US Army decided to requisition it. At that time, the house was not finished. The US Army gave him $300,000 for the land, unfinished house, guest cottage and outbuildings in which he had planned to establish a model dairy farm. The house was completed to US Army specifications in 1942 as a headquarters and operations building. Later, it became the base commander's house, with the stables used as bachelor, then married officers, quarters. After the US Navy quit the base in 1995, Longbird House and all its outbuildings were demolished by the Bermuda Government to make way for its further use of the airport.
April 1941-July 4, 1944. Brigadier General Alden G. Strong.
From July 5, 1944 to January 13, 1946, Brigadier General Thomas H. Jones.
From January 1946 to October 1946, Colonel Cecil E. Henry.
From March 7-July 25, 1946, Major General Howard M. Turner.
July 26-28th 1946 and October 3, 1946 to March 13, 1947, Brigadier General Dale V. Gaffney.
March 14, 1947-July 13, 1949, Colonel Thomas D. Ferguson.
July 14, 1949-August 30, 1951, Lieutenant General Jack G. Merrell. (His daughter Suzanne Merrell Wright wrote to say he retired as a 4-star general in September 1972).
August 31, 1949 to July 14, 1953, Colonel (later, General) Richard F. Bromiley.
July 15, 1953-July 2, 1956, Colonel George W. Peterson.
July 23, 1956-October 15, 1958, Colonel Philip H. Best.
December 19, 1958-August 12, 1959, Colonel George L. Robinson.
September 3, 1959-June 21, 1962, Colonel Lester C. Messenger, USAF
1961. At US Naval Station, Bermuda, Captain David Burns, USN
June 21, 1962-May 27, 1964, Colonel Edward L. Jones.
July 13, 1964-July 18, 1966, Colonel Oren J. Poage.
During the Second World War, the American Army erected a Base-End Station at the site, one of thirteen around Bermuda for the control of coastal gunnery. After the conflict, Daniel's Head was let out for farming.
During World War 2:
The US Signal Corps operated a signal station from a field below the artillery unit which are now part of the Ocean View Golf Course.
From 1941 to 1945, Captain F. W. Clipper, US Army, commanded the US Army artillery unit at Fort Langton. He married a Bermudian girl, Rosemary, never went back home to the USA to live but remained in Bermuda. He had two daughters, lived in Bailey's Bay, became a Cub master in the 1950s at the Lyceum, Bailey's Bay and later became a prominent volunteer with the Bermuda Red Cross. His wife died in the late 1980s.
St.
David's Island, in St.
George's Parish. One mile by water and 3-5 miles from the Town of St. George, via the Swing Bridge at Ferry Reach. Then along St. David's Road. The City of Hamilton is
8.3 miles to the west. First US Army and
USAAF, then
Kindley AFB from 1946 in various roles including for Strategic Air Command and
as a refueling station for nuclear bombers. Civilianized now but some buildings
have not yet been re-occupied and, like the former military hospital,
are closed to the public.Routes 10 and 11 and 6 buses go part of the
way. By moped or taxi, access to right at former # 2 Gate or at former military school (Kindley AFB High, then
Roger Chaffee, now Clearwater Middle School).
Clearwater Beach was built after 1941as a man-made beach from landfill left over from creating the runways and named Clearwater from the place in Florida by the USAF after it took over the base in 1948 from the US Army. US Military personnel once stationed in Bermuda should note that there have been so many changes in this former base that some places are no longer recognizable or accessible, or were demolished after 1995.
Main street names of the base, most in honor of US military heroes, were originally as shown below. After May 1, 1995, many were renamed. (To see which ones have been renamed please contact the Bermuda Government's Bermuda Land Development Corporation).
This former British Army facility and part of its structure were used as the foundations for the clubhouse after the war and more of the former fort became the bus garage in the 1970s. On the field below the bus garage, now the golf course, were two US Army posts during World War 11. One was a unit of the US Army Signal Corps and the other was the US Army's Artillery, at APO 856. It was a unit (including 1st Platoon Battery A) of the 423rd Field Artillery Group, under the command of Captain F. W. Clipper, US Army.
Not many people realize the Royal Air Force (RAF) also had an ATC facility here.
It was under the operational authority of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Detachment and the ears of the Coast Guard search and rescue mission on Bermuda. In addition to ground-to-air radio communications, the radio station (radio call sign NOC) it maintained a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week shore to ship radiotelegraph and radiotelephone operation as an important part of the U.S. Coast Guard AMVER, Atlantic search and rescue, and USCGAD/NOB Bermuda operations.
Old base was on the commingled Tucker's Island and Morgan's Island in Southampton Parish, not Sandys Parish as stated by some sources. Both islands were separate until construction began on this base in 1941 and created it from scratch.
1941.
April 7. Captain Jules James, USN, read his orders as Commandant, USNOB Bermuda
and hoisted his pennant over the former residence of Mrs. Margaret V.B.T.
Wooley-Hart on Tuckers Island. (This building later became the Religious
Center). Its roads were
Boxer Road, named after a late WW2 aircraft carrier which bore the names of earlier earlier USN vessels.
Constitution Road, named after the 44-gun frigate USS Constitution built at Boston in 1797.
Enterprise Road, after the USS Enterprise.
Essex Road, after the USS Essex.
Hancock Road, after the USS Hancock.
Intrepid Road, after the USS Intrepid.
Lexington Road. After Lexington, MA and ships by that name.
Monterey Road, after Monterey, CA and ships by that name.
Pier Road. At the main pier.
Point Cruz Road, after the USS Point Cruz.
Randolph Road, after the USS Randolph ships.
Ranger Road, after the USS Ranger.
Saratoga Road, after USS Saratoga.
Shangri-La Road, after the USS Shangri-La.
Wasp Road, after the USS Wasp.
Yorktown Road, after the ship by that name and where Lord Cornwallis surrendered British forces in 1781.
Unfortunately, access to it is strictly prohibited to all locals and visitors including former US NOB personnel.
There are extensive re-development plans but nothing to date has been done as the Bermuda Government claims it was dangerously polluted by the US Navy.
Ordnance Island, Town of St. George, from 1942-45. Within walking distance of bus routes 3, 10, 11. No traces remain.
Southampton Parish, left on Pompano Beach Road after Port Royal Golf Course, then left again to facility. Closed to the public. It had 25 acres going down to the South Shore ocean.
It was a top secret anti-submarine warfare and radar surveillance station.
Where the Southampton Princess Hotel was built. Before that, it was once owned by Sir Nathaniel Rich, one of the original directors and shareholders of the Bermuda Company, from 1615 until his death in 1636. On 7th April 1941, the American Army took it over and it was there sometime before they left in 1945, that a bundle of Bermudian-American mongrels were born. Maybe the lucky seven were "Bermuda spashalls", or "Heinz 57s" depending on the parish dialect, being born in Bermuda but having adoptive American parents, both males. The American leader, Captain (later Admiral) Jules James USN received commendations for his careful and diplomatic handling of the Bermuda Government and the people of the island, unlike the-then Governor of Bermuda.. In another connection with Bermuda, Capt. James was a cousin of Nancy Astor, the first woman elected to the Parliament in London; she was married to a relative of one of the richest men in the world, Vincent Astor, who built a great home on Ferry Reach. (Astor erected the house with his first wife, Helen Huntington, but both likely lost interest in it when the pristine Castle Harbour, their main vista, was destroyed to make Kindley Field). One of the Americans who came to Bermuda at that time was a Captain Charles Beaudry USA, who spent most of the war in Bermuda. He made friends with many Bermudians, and made many pictures of the island, the new military works and Bermuda scenes of the time. Colonel Beaudry donated his photographic collection to the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Along with that of the late Edward Tomasiewicz (acquired by the Museum through the help of Bermudian Spanton Ashdown), it forms a major archive of American activity on the island during the war. By 1939, the several hundred British guns at Bermuda had been reduced to two 6-inch Breech Loaders manned by the Bermuda Militia Artillery at St. David's Battery. Two more such guns were installed that year at Warwick Camp, but with only four weapons island-wide, it was necessary for the Americans to assume the coastal defence of Bermuda and bring in some big guns. Captain Beaudry was in charge of installing some of these pieces, two of which were at Turtle Hill, where a camp, minus any known followers excepting the lucky seven, was soon installed amidst the rolling cedar strewn landscape. On the highest part of the hill, two circular Panama Mounts were built in concrete to take 155mm GPF guns, one appearing inset in a photograph here presented. Similar guns were placed at Cooper's Island, while massive railway guns, mounted on a set of tracks to nowhere, were installed at Scaur Hill and between Forts Victoria and Albert on St. George's Island. A year later, fixed installations replaced the latter and two others were built at Tudor Hill near the Naval Operating Base, where Captain Jules James set up camp at the first American station at Bermuda. At the American Army encampment at Turtle Hill, the facilities included an open-air mess hall. See the surviving Panama Mount gun emplacement which once had a 155mm GPF gun.
Some of the buildings shown, once very familiar to all men and women at the base, have been demolished since the bases were closed.
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In October 1940, an American
Naval mission under Rear Admiral John W. Greenslade arrived in Bermuda on the US
Navy cruiser St. Louis. Its purpose was to
survey of possible sites for the building from scratch of US military
bases and report to the President's Base Lease Commission. On November 10,
the SS Santa Paula reached
Hamilton Harbor. She brought the second contingent of US War
Department personnel, to begin operations with the proposed
new Bermuda Air Base, the site of which had still not yet been decided. They
went to the first US Engineers' office, then opposite the St. George's Police Station.
Former US Naval Air Station, Bermuda. Sign has now gone. |
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Then the
Americans announced their initial idea to create the base between Gibbs Hill Lighthouse and the
Inverurie Hotel - the whole of Riddell's Bay. They wanted to level the whole area and push the rubble into the Great Sound and Hamilton
Harbour and clear to the ocean on the South Shore, to
create a runway for aircraft. Bermudians were
aghast at the prospect, those with property in Southampton, Warwick and Paget especially
so.
Old US Post Office. |
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A raging furor ensued. Governor Sir Denis Bernard appointed a small committee to advise him. A Bermuda delegation was dispatched to Washington, DC with counter-proposals discussed with the British Ambassador and American Secretary of State. The concession was finally made, to avoid wholesale slaughter of Southampton and Warwick from north to south. No base would be built with an American enclave in the middle of rural Bermuda. US Army, Air Force & Navy changed Bermuda. Building demolished |
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Then, in late November, came the official announcement that first gave most Bermudians the news that much of St. David's Island was to be given up, as part of the land for the construction of American military bases in Bermuda. St. David's Islanders, most affected, would lose their homes, land and farms. So deep was the feeling that Governor Sir Denis Bernard arranged a meeting on St. David's, in order to personally meet, talk and listen to them. The benefits the bases brought to Bermuda. Building demolished. |
| It was the most significant meeting ever held on St. David's. No St. David's Islanders dissented. They played their part, as loyal subjects of King George VI, in the struggle and shouldered their share of Britain's burden. True - they did get compensated for what they lost. But that was their finest hour. All they had left was hope - that the war would not last long enough to see the fruition of the master-plan to turn their homes and farms into a military base. US movie house built by July 4, 1942 (now for civilian movies). Bermuda cedar was used then for internal finishing. |  |
| Their
hope withered as the war got worse, as British losses mounted; as the Molotov-Hitler discussions in Berlin indicated further doom and
gloom; as Hungary and Romania joined the Berlin-Rome (and later, Tokyo) pact;
and as the Germans reinforced the Italians in Greece. By December 3,
President Roosevelt had allocated $75 million in emergency defense funds for
construction work at the eight newly-acquired American bases in various British
possessions including Bermuda.
Former US recreational building |
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| On January 6,
1941 the Naval Board which visited Bermuda a few months earlier, with Rear
Admiral Greenslade, made its report to the President's Base
Lease Commission in Washington, DC. Under the terms of the 99 year
Anglo-American Lend-Lease Agreement, which had been ratified, the two U.S.
defense bases were established, on paper. On January 15, the House
of Assembly was informed by Governor Sir Denis Bernard that he would
welcome the appointment of a joint select committee.
Carter House. Saved from destruction in 1942, now the St. David's Historical Society. |
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| Its purpose was to advise
him on the financial, social and economic problems arising from the
decision taken by the British and American authorities to establish military
bases, with particular regard to the St. David's Islanders most affected. The first site
for an Army base had already been decided for most of St. David's Island, which
was confirmed. It was announced officially that second site would also be
necessary.
Once a military Macdonald's, now a local restaurant |
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In fact, that decision had been
made over two years earlier, but it had not been made public. Of course, the
British Government had kept the Bermuda Government fully informed on the
arrangements made to site the American bases in Bermuda. But senior members of
the Bermuda Government were dispatched to London anyway, to try to have Bermuda
exempted as much as possible from the plan.
More former American military buildings, all now civilian |
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Then the
opportunity was taken to announce the site of the other base - the Navy base in
Southampton Parish (where it too remained until 1995). Only then did the secret
held for nearly two years by prominent Bermuda lawyer Bayard Dill officially
emerge into the public domain. One of the Great Sound islands affected was
Morgan's Island, which had been owned by his sister Ruth.
Former Commissary, a White & Sons supermarket in 2003 |
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Morgan's Island was an integral part of where the original base was to be
sited. That island had played a similar role, without any physical
change, in the First World War when the United States Navy had made use of it. As noted in Bermuda's Many Islands present and past, small islands were swallowed up or merged or blended, or land built from
scratch or from landfill to create the two United States bases
in St. George's Parish and
Southampton Parish.
Kindley AFB, facing the Town of St. George |
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Many small islands were sanctuaries for wild birds and other native flora and fauna. Construction began in 1941 and took several years. Bermuda got bigger by 6,300 acres. The environmental damage was immense. But the changes were necessary. They were initially to help defend a forward position of the USA in the Atlantic and friendly British territory in World War 2. The facility on St. David's Island began in 1941 as a US Army base. On completion in 1943 it was known as Fort Bell. Then it was a US Army Air Force base and after that, Kindley USAF base. It converted to a US Naval Air Station in 1970. (The former Officer's Mess on Whaler's Hill, shown here, is named from the fact that the hill was a look-out point for sighting whales or for seeing returning whaleboats). |
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It brought to Bermuda for the first time, land aircraft of the Royal Air Force. (Earlier, only British flying ships could land, elsewhere). The facility in Southampton Parish - in the west - was the US Naval Station Annex. The facility on St. David's Island includes the original Civil Air Terminal, now the Bermuda International Airport. Kindley Field was an American-built, American-equipped and American-run run airport until 1995). During World War 2, it had military and civilian intelligence gathering personnel from many other Allied countries, at Canadian and British military facilities also. Kindley AFB/USNAS hospital. Abandoned since base closed in 1995 |
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In 1942, a US Navy oil tanker was diverted
from a convoy to deliver water to Bermuda. Also then, the US Navy
deepened Dundonald Channel and later added a branch to one side - still
on current charts - to allow US ships access to the Naval Operating Base
in Southampton. It also maintained
(until 1980) five of the many channel marker buoys - those going to the NOB.
Throughout the war, the US
Navy was one of the services that shipped in food and supplies
for locals and feed for animals. Bermudians were introduced to trade
unionism and civil, human and political rights (for Bermudians). Employment the bases generated and
exchanges with
builders and military personnel of all races led to a lifting of the local color
bar and end of discrimination
against Jews, Catholics and other minorities.
Final role from 1972-1995 was as a USNAS |
All the above photographs are by author Keith A. Forbes.
It also inspired good roads, American sports and automobiles, and a building boom. After World War Two, the US bases provided steady employment for many Bermudians and tenants for their houses. In 1946, two US Navy Construction Battalions (Seabees) replaced, repaired or resurfaced 18.5 miles of main roads from Southampton Parish to St. David's. It was mostly to link the two US bases, but for civilian traffic also. Then the eastern facility became Kindley USAF base for the Strategic Air Command of the USA and concurrently a small US Coast Guard Station. It switched roles and became a naval air station in the early 1970's, until the closure of both military bases in 1995.
| The Bermuda Beacon | Military monthly, published for the US Army's Fort Bell and Kindley Field by the US Army Engineers | 1942-5 |
Named in 1942 after Captain Field E. Kindley, a famous American military aviator who never went to Bermuda. (Kindley Field is now Bermuda International Airport).
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This occupied all of Ordnance Island in the Town of St. George, directly across St. George's Harbour from Fort Bell. It was a submarine base for the United States Navy, the third US military base in Bermuda until 1945. As the postage stamp shows, the submarines were moored on the south side of Ordnance Island. It was not part of the original agreement between America and Britain. It was established a few months after the USA was attacked by Japan in December 1941 because German submarines were taking a grim toll of Allied shipping and penetrating the US East Coast. When first occupied by the USN, it had a wooden bridge. US military engineers built the concrete and steel bridge still used today. This base was one of several featuring military bases in Bermuda. |
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1943. December 30. 7 officers and 17 enlisted men arrived at Kindley to form the nucleus of Air Transport Command activities in Bermuda. Their organization was activated in January 1944 and designated Station 17, NAW, ATC. It is the genealogical ancestor of what became the 1389th Army Air Force Base Unit, later renamed the 1604th Air Base Group.
In 1944, Kindley began what became a long tradition of saving lives from accidents at sea from ships in distress and downed aircraft. A crash boat unit began. What was the 791st Quartermaster Boat Company, Aviation, was redesignated as a detachment of the 1st Air Force Emergency Rescue Squadron. Several crash boat men from the Kindley unit were decorated for their heroism during the war. One was Bronson Hartley. He rescued crewmen from a downed US Army Air Force aircraft that crashed into the water off the end of the Castle Harbor runway. Later, he became an esteemed marine biologist and inventor of the Hartley Diving Helmet. (Today, one of his sons, Gregory Hartley, runs a shallow-water helmet diving business in Bermuda, using the current version of the same helmet, taking locals and visitors on tours of the ocean bed from his headquarters at Watford Bridge in Sandys Parish. Another son does the same thing in the Bahamas).
In mid 1944, an Armed Forces Radio Station, which used the call sign WXLQ, transmitting on the 1240 kcs medium wave band frequency, went on the air from Kindley, for a two-year stint.
In January, 1945 an American Army Hospital ship was stuck in the reefs off Bermuda.
In 1945, to supplement the activities of the crash unit, several rescue C-47 and B-17 aircraft with airborne lifeboats were seen at Kindley, assigned to the base rather than a specific air rescue unit.
Named after Captain Field E. Kindley, US Army Air Force.
On January 1, 1946 the Bermuda Base Command and the 1389th AAFBU consolidated. General Thomas H. Jones, base commander, became the commanding officer of the combined command. His deputy was Colonel Cecil E. Henry, who previously commanded Kindley Field.
From late January 1946, when General Jones was air evacuated back to the USA gravely ill, Colonel Cecil E. Henry assumed overall command of Kindley Air Force Base. He remained in that role until March 1946 and again from July to October 3, 1946, as the official base commander # 3.
1946. August 22. President Harry Truman of the USA arrived in Bermuda on the presidential yacht Williamsburg for a week-long informal stay. He swam, fished and toured the island by automobile.
1949. Kindley welcomed Flight D, 2152nd Rescue Unit of the USAF, which later became Flight D, 6th Rescue Unit then Flight D, First Rescue Squadron. The unit flew converted SB-17 bombers which carried, slung under their bellies, lifeboats dripped to the ocean by parachute.
After World War 2, the base guarded the Eastern seaboard of the USA and Atlantic against a Soviet threat during the Cold War.
1950. March. The Legend of the Bermuda Triangle assumed even greater importance, with the loss, in the Atlantic, on the northern edge of the Triangle, of a United States Air Force Globemaster aircraft, in inexplicable circumstances.
1950. July 1. The US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda was decommissioned, with the US Naval Station instead.
1950. April. A Bermudian, his two sons and eight US Marines were rescued after two days adrift 60 miles off Bermuda in a disabled motor launch. The party was sighted by an SB-17 aircraft from the Kindley United States Air Force Base in Bermuda and eventually picked up by the Royal Naval vessel HMS Bigbury Bay.
In 1951, the crash boat unit was again redesignated, this time as the 6th Crash Rescue Boat Flight. (It remained in operation until December 1956).
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In the early 50's MATS (Military Air Transport) took over control of Kindley for as long as it remained a USAF base. The Base Commander was a MATS officer. Initially, Kindley was a refueling stop for aircraft flying the "Southern Route" via the Azores to/from Europe, Middle East and Africa. |
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In December, 1952 a dramatic rescue operation was mounted from Bermuda to save the passengers of a stricken Cubana Airlines aircraft which had taken off from the Civil Air Terminal but crashed into the waters of Castle Harbor at the end of the runway at about 4.30 pm, as dusk approached. Bermuda had been well prepared for such a rescue operation, due to the previous establishment at Kindley Air Force Base of crash boats imported and operated especially for such an emergency. On that particular night, two US servicemen on board the 35-foot crash boat that went out to rescue the aircraft's passengers heard faint screams coming from the dark, oil-slicked water. They leapt overboard without lifelines or preservers, in an attempt to rescue the passengers. But despite their heroic efforts, and those of others, in rescuing four people, the balance of the passengers and crew of the stricken aircraft - some thirty seven people in all - perished from wounds incurred in the crash.
In late September 1953, two Kindley Air Force Base crash firefighters earned the US Soldier's Medal when they entered a burning US Navy R6D aircraft which had crash landed on the base. The men entered the blazing wreck without protective clothing to make sure that all passengers had been evacuated - which they had. But the aircraft was a total loss.
In
December 1953, for the first of four important Summit Conferences that
took place in Bermuda between American Presidents and British Prime Ministers
after they arrived at the USA's Kindley Air Force Base, the
arrival of President Eisenhower with pomp and circumstance
created a major stir.
He had been to Bermuda before, but not as President, instead as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in 1945 as the war with Germany and Japan was ending.
He had flown in directly from Europe, was re-tailored at the US Army Air Force base of Fort Bell in Bermuda (which was replaced by Kindley).
He went from there to accept the thanks of and further military instructions from the US Congress in Washington, DC.
On this particular occasion in Bermuda, the President was joined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French Premier Laniel, both of whom had arrived at Kindley a day or so earlier.
President Eisenhower in Bermuda in 1945, 8 years earlier
All three spent a total of four days together in Bermuda. Their geopolitical discussions centered mostly on relations with the USSR as the post war Cold War began to intensify. Within hours of the commencement of the conference came an official note from Moscow which requested, in somewhat brusque terms, a 4 Power meeting involving the Russian leader.
On June 21,
1956,
KAFB celebrated a major event, with Bermudian help. The
occasion was the official dedication of the brand-new base
hospital (shown here in photo by author) up to
latest US hospital standards, on the site of the old building which had been
demolished because it had incurred some major building errors and its
foundations and walls were doomed. It
was designated as the 1604th Hospital (and stayed that way until 1967 when it
was downgraded to a dispensary).
On Sunday, November 11, 1956, The
New York Times reported that a missing US Navy patrol plane
with ten men aboard was hunted the previous day by Navy and Coast Guard units in
waters north of Bermuda. The plane was believed to be the one that a Liberian
freighter had spotted in flames on the Friday night before then. An SOS message from the freighter -
the Captain Lyras - at 8:51pm Friday reported "a plane overhead in
flames" at a point about 400 miles east southeast of New York.
The New York Times intercepted another message from the freighter reporting that
an explosion had been heard and felt strongly aboard the vessel. Still another
message from the freighter reported the sighting about four miles away of what
appeared to be a life raft with a light on it. The freighter's report that the raft had become obscured by rain, heavy seas and darkness.
According to the Navy,
weather conditions at the time of the SOS were scattered clouds at 1,500 feet,
showers with good visibility and moderate seas.
The joint sea-air
search was coordinated by the Navy's Eastern Sear Frontier command in New York
State. The
Commandant, Vice Admiral Frederick W. McMahon, was quoted as declaring the Navy
plane "may or may not" be the sighted craft. Other Naval authorities
in Norfolk, Va., and Bermuda, home base of the plane, presumed it was. There
were no other reports at the time of a missing civilian or military aircraft.
The missing plane was a Martin "Marlin" P5M 127705, a twin-engine flying boat
carrying seven enlisted men and three officers. The Navy
said the craft radioed its last position report at 8:30 pm Friday when
"roughly" in the area of the freighter's report. The United States
Naval Station in Bermuda, where the plane was assigned to Navy Squadron VP 49,
reported the craft's last position report as 350 miles north of Bermuda.
An Associated Press report
said the plane had left Bermuda on a patrol flight with enough fuel to keep it
aloft until 6:30 am next day. The search was begun by three Coast Guard
aircraft and a cutter, the Chincoteague, then about 180 miles from the
Captain Lyras at the time of the freighter's SOS. Also joining the search were
two Navy destroyers and six Navy planes. These were four other P5M's stationed
in Bermuda and two P2V Neptune patrol bombers - like the type shown in the
photograph below - from Maryland.
The Navy in Washington announced that missing from the aircraft were Petty Officer 3/C Wendell Frederick Beverly, son of Francis Louis Beverly, Ballou Lane, Williamaton, MA; Petty Officer 3/c Billy Gene Comer, son of James Vester Comer, Blossburg, AL; Petty Officer 3/C Jesse William Grable, son of Byford Otto Grable, 1305 Dover, Centralia, IL; Petty Officer 3/C Richard Woods Montgomery, son of Thaddeus Lemart Montgomery, 118 Colwyn Lane, Cynwyd, PA; Lieut. (jg) Charles William Patterson, husband of Billie Lawson Patterson, Naval Station, Bermuda; Petty Officer 2/C Lyle Freeman Quimby, husband of Karin Mae Quimby, Beachcrest Cottage, Rural Hill Paget, Bermuda, and son of Mrs. Earl Quimby, 3036 Colfax, North Minneapolis, MN; Leut.(jg) Cyrus Eugene Reid Jr., son of Mary Marshall Reid, Edgewater Drive, Dallas 5, TX; Airman Bobbie Lee Sanders, son of Mary Frye, 312 West 9th Street, Houston, TX; Comdr. John Milton Sweeney, husband of Mary Mathewson Sweeney, Mimosa Cottage, Warwick, Bermuda; Petty Officer 1/C Robert Wayne Taylor, husband of Shirley Marea Taylor, Elys Harbor Apartments, Somerset, Bermuda, and son of Mrs. Phillip Yedlik, Route 2, West Liberty, OH.
In the late 50's SAC deployed KC-97's to Kindley for air refueling of B-47's (USA based) over the Atlantic.
In January, 1957, the McDonough Construction Company of Florida was awarded by the US military authorities a $2 million contract for additional construction at Kindley Air Force Base. The Bermudian workers hired to supplement the American civilians imported for the purpose got an specially nice deal. For the first time in the history of the US bases in Bermuda, they were paid the same rate as their counterparts in the USA.
On January 18, 1958, Bermuda got its own TV station for the first time, when ZBM-TV went on the air. It began life as a cooperative arrangement. The Kindley TV station, ZBK-TV changed its broadcasting times to 12.00 noon to 5.30 pm, with ZBM taking over Channel 10 at 5.40 p.m. The agreement had been worked out with the United States Department of Defense. It was then normal policy that an Armed Forces station could not be operated in any jurisdiction where commercial English language facilities already existed. Permission was given by the US Department of Defense and Bermuda Government for the Kindley Station to remain on the air until ZBM's station and coverage were well-established and could provide the same number of broadcasting hours Kindley had been offering.
In January 1955 the 303rd Air Refueling Squadron went to full operational status with KC-97's and crews on alert status at all times. In the 50's and 60's along with MATS, SAC and Air Sea Rescue there was a B-29 hurricane hunter squadron and a B-29 TAC air refueling squadron for refueling jet fighters, plus a few other temporary groups. The above all used prop driven aircraft and as they were phased out and replaced by jet aircraft the need for a refueling stop in Bermuda was eliminated. Royal Air Force Vulcan and Comet jet aircraft would come in quite frequently and the standard joke was "They just stopped into the PX and commissary." For the USAF Kindley became more of an "Emergency" base in case an aircraft needed to make an emergency landing or Air Sea Rescue was needed. (When the cold war submarine threat became more of an issue it made more sense for the Navy to take over operations).
Construction of the NASA tracking station was completed in late 1960, after work began on it in 1959. The NASA station, now deserted but still with its signs, is at the end of Mercury Road on Cooper's Island, on the southeast tip of the former base, (adjacent to what is now Clearwater Park). Many airmen and locals were employed to help complete the construction on time. Bermuda became part of the NASA worldwide tracking network and initially it's primary responsibility was computer monitoring and along with Cape Canaveral could abort a mission on the downrange before going into orbit. The Atlantic Ocean abort landing area was between Bermuda and the Canary Islands.
The seven Mercury astronauts, Shepherd, Grisssom, Glenn, Carpenter, Cooper, Slayton and Schirra were frequent visitors to NASA Bermuda in 1960 & 1961. Another species of astronaut - Ham the chimpanzee - also visited Bermuda after a space flight, January 31, 1961. Ham landed south of Bermuda. With his capsule which almost sank on landing, he got a return flight to Cape Canaveral (later, Kennedy) via Kindley. As a show of thanks to Bermuda, NASA started the world tour of John Glenn's (from February 20 1962) Friendship 7 capsule in Hamilton on April 20, 1962. (Bermuda's role within NASA changed many times over the years. Basically due to technology advancements NASA no longer requires the Bermuda site as a primary control or tracking station).
About the same time SAC began its operations on Kindley, the Russians started to listen in on Kindley from electronic surveillance vessels. The Russians said the vessels were for ocean research and would invariably request permission to dock in St. George using medical or some other humanitarian reason. 3 or 4 times a year, the Russians came snooping and as they were docked at Wharf Street, St. George, they could not get much closer to Kindley. But the base was opposite the civilian port. At this same time US nuclear subs were cruising around Bermuda so the Russians were busy in the area.
1961. On September 22, a Marlin P5M S-2 of Patrol Squadron VP 45, US Navy crash-landed in the ocean 178 miles north of Bermuda. Crewmembers Robert Carroll, Cameron Cooper, Charles Dunaway, Lieutenant Commander Albert J. Tait, Erwin Thompson, Charles Turner and David Wood, all Bermuda-based, perished. There were 3 survivors.On March 24, 1962, in a solemn ceremony at the non-denominational chapel of the US Naval Operating Base in Bermuda, a US Navy Memorial Tablet was laid to honor the memory of those who died in the September 21, 1961 crash off Bermuda.
In November 1963, the US Coast Guard detachment transferred from the U.S. Naval Station to Kindley because greater range could be gotten from its HU-16 Albatross aircraft by land takeoffs rather than water takeoffs.
In 1963, modern, high-speed, land-based P-3 Orion aircraft replaced the seaplanes at the US Naval Operating Station, Bermuda.
1963. November. The US Coast Guard detachment in Bermuda transferred from the U.S. Naval Operating Station to Kindley, Bermuda, because greater range could be gotten from its HU-16 Albatross aircraft by land takeoffs rather than water takeoffs.
On July 4, 1955, Independence Day, American servicemen and their families and friends in Bermuda had a special reason to celebrate. ZBK-TV from Kindley, Bermuda's first, signaled a new era of communications. The audience was officially limited to television receivers in on-base quarters and barracks. But a number of Bermudian families who had equipped themselves with TV sets in hopes of 'catching' the programming were not disappointed in their investment. The signal could be picked up easily in St. George's, Tucker's Town and a few isolated spots even as far away as Harrington Sound, in the vicinity of Flatts. Locals acquired a TV set and could easily receive from their hill-top vantage point the TV signal from Kindley - and periodically invited their neighbors and friends around to watch the American shows, then only in black-and-white, of course. Originally, it had been intended to provide Island-wide TV service and the Bermuda Government had given its permission. But it was discovered that it would not be possible, because the TV footage was then provided by the American TV networks, agencies and unions for transmitting to military forces and their dependents only, not for civilian audiences. TV for the US Navy at Southampton and for all of civilian Bermuda took longer to materialize. American TV engineers who arrived at Kindley were faced with the highly technical problem of trying to restrict transmission to the base area. One of the reasons behind the decision to allow TV to the American military was the fact that the 1,500-plus American service families felt they should not be 'deprived' of TV simply because they were residing in Bermuda, when US bases elsewhere in the world all had TV.
In 1968, as riots, strikes and malicious damage rocked Bermuda and the British Army sent a warship HMS Leopard and Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers, precautions were taken at Kindley AFB and the US Naval Station Annex as well. Major General Carl A. Youngdale, Inspector General of the US Marine Corps, arrived in Bermuda to beef up and review the US Marines.
In October, 1969 for a United Press International Conference in Bermuda, delegates included US Attorney General John Mitchell, Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller and Walter Cronkite. They arrived at Kindley and were met by USAF personnel.
US Marines guarded the bases, ammunition supplies, gates of entry and weapons depot.
On the US Navy takeover of the USAF base on July 1, 1970, the former Kindley AFB High School became Roger B. Chaffee school after astronaut Lieutenant Commander Roger B. Chaffee, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He lived from 1935 to 1967 when he died in an Apollo tragedy. It provided K-12 education for thousands of children whose parents lived on or off the base as American military or civilian officials; and local children one parent of whom was American. Most graduates now live in the USA but some are in Bermuda.
1974. February. A US Navy tug feed the grain ship "Mount Julie" from a reef in Bermuda's main shipping channel.
1974. The Legislative Council of Bermuda approved regulations allowing American civilians employed at the US bases in Bermuda to have the same on-base customs privileges as members of US Armed Forces.
Before leaving in 1995, the United States military had occupied more than 10 percent of Bermuda. At that time and for years, the Bermuda Government got more than US $ 60 million a year from the bases, even though their real estate had been rent free. With the Soviet Union gone and NATO restructured, Bermuda's importance as a military base ended. So did the income from it. Now Bermuda's taxpayers and visitors pay the shortfall.
Then-existing facilities on both sites include more than 300 buildings in various sizes and capable of a multiplicity of uses; hurricane moorings; aircraft hangers, ship docking facilities, tender piers and wharves; six major water catchments; a 15.5 million gallon water reservoir; two 40,000 gallon reverse osmosis desalinization plants; and much more.
The former Commissary building was a real boon to all ranks - not only Americans but also the Royal Navy and Canadian Forces when they were in Bermuda. It was far less expensive than in Bermuda shops.
The Stars and Stripes were officially lowered on June 2, 1995, as a lone trumpeter played "Taps." The flag was handed to the last base Commanding Officer, Captain Timothy Bryan, before an assembled gathering of base personnel and local dignitaries who included the USA's Consul General in Bermuda, Mr. Robert Farmer. With that, 54 years of the USA's military presence in Bermuda officially ended in 1995. It finished the withdrawal on September 1. Now the beaches are open to all.
Like the former Fort Bell/USAAF/Kindley AFB/USNAS complex, this base too is now owned by the Bermuda Land Development Corporation, a Bermuda Government-owned entity under the portfolio of the Bermuda Government's Minister of Works and Engineering Alex Scott. Now renamed Morgan's Point, when re-developed, it will be Bermuda's biggest development. The US$ 300 million project was supposed to create in 1997 over 220 jobs in the first two years of development and 350 more thereafter. But there have been major delays because of Bermuda Government claims of massive pollution above and below ground by the US Navy. Eventually, it is hoped it will include a PGA championship 18 hole golf course; a community village; cottage colony (a cottage community health spa, with 200 rooms); private housing, to involve a range of medium and high-priced homes; and a marina. The work will include coastal protection works; an environmental cleanup; installation of electricity, water, telecommunications and sewage treatment facilities and public parks.
Longbird House, once the residence of the US Air Force's and then the US Navy's Commanding Officer in Bermuda, was demolished. At one time, a host of wartime and postwar dignitaries stayed there, including General (later, President) Eisenhower in the last stages of World War II. The building was identified by local and international authorities as a potential hazard to incoming aircraft, a navigational hazard in their flight path. Other facilities no longer exist, also demolished by the Bermuda Government. The whole area has reverted to its original pre World War 2 name of Southside and is owned by the Bermuda Government's Bermuda Land Development Company (BLDC).
Overseas, closures of former military bases have seen the creation of Foreign Trade Zones or Enterprise Zones which get special privileges or tax benefits and can also have import duties waived or deferred until goods are finished and shipped out of the zone. There, any qualified corporation from any country qualifies for freehold or leasehold offices as preferred. But in Bermuda, the entire former military facility is owned by the Bermuda Government, with no possibility of any private sector company getting freehold. There is a 45-acre Southside Business Enterprise Zone but no US-style No Foreign Trade Zone or Enterprise Zone concessions or privileges or benefits apply. Companies will not be able to bring in unfinished goods Customs duty-free as they can in the USA at a Foreign Trade Zone and then pay Customs duties on finished goods once they are shipped out of the zone.
Many former Kindley Air Force Base and US Naval Air Station employees have attended receptions in Bermuda at various times, including in 1999, 2000 and another in July 2002 from the cruise ship "Zenith" which leaves on June 29 from New York. Included are Don and Wendy Moss and Donald and Betty Mroz at local telephone number (441) 238-3720. The events have attracted full-page articles in the daily Royal Gazette newspaper of Bermuda - which owns this website.
One parent wrote saying that because her children were born off base, in the local hospital while she and her husband were stationed in Bermuda, they are entitled to "dual nationality." (Sorry, no, only if one of the parents was Bermudian). (For more information on this, communicate with the US State Department or the US Consulate General in Bermuda at telephone (441) 295-1342 or fax (441) 295-1592 or the Bermuda Government's Ministry of Home Affairs at telephone (441) 295-5151).
Like the former Fort Bell/USAAF/Kindley AFB/USNAS complex, the former USN base in Southampton Parish - now called Morgan's Point - is now owned by - and the responsibility of - the Bermuda Land Development Company, a Bermuda Government-owned entity.
There have been three failed bids to redevelop the area on a leasehold basis. The first was from British based Renaissance Resorts International Ltd. It won the bid but failed to act. The second was from Morgan's Harbour Investment Ltd. It too won the bid but also failed to act in 1999. The third was from BEAM Ltd. The $250-$300 million project was expected to create 220 jobs in the first two years of development and 350 more thereafter. It was to have included a PGA championship 18 hole golf course - for which two plans were drawn up by famous golfers; a community village; cottage colony; housing, with a range of medium and high priced homes; and marina in two phases, to include coastal protection works; an environmental cleanup; installation of electricity, water, telecommunications and sewage treatment facilities and public parks. But nothing happened.
Announced on October 24, 2003 was the news that the Bermuda Government now intends, instead of all previous projects, to turn Morgan's Point into Bermuda's fourth residential hub, after Hamilton, St. George's and Southside in St. David's.
American base personnel held an annual Open House day each year with a thrilling air show, for Bermudians and residents. They preserved for the general public to view, various historic buildings on the bases, such as Carter House. They allowed Bermudians and others to use their "chain restaurant." They were the pressure instruments for the final introduction for civilian use of motor vehicles. They lent Bermudians their facilities for baseball, basketball, cycling, football, go carting, model airplane clubs, sail boat anchorage's and triathlon events. Via their military school and college admission facilities, they educated many locals with undergraduate and post-graduate degree programs. They were never "unapproachable," behind concrete walls. They were always good neighbors and often close friends.
In the 54 years of the USA's military presence in Bermuda, American base personnel married Bermudians and doused fires with their fire fighting facilities supplementing the local services. They also provided the island's only Air Sea Rescue operations with helicopters and surface craft. The base hospital and its staff always responded whenever emergencies stretched the resources of local civilian facilities.
The American military provided and maintained Longbird Bridge, for people from the central and western Parishes to access the airport.
The US Army Air Force Base and its successors in the United States Air Force and United States Navy supplied the building, meteorological services, incoming and outgoing flight direction. Without this long, land based, airport and runways, Bermuda might never have had its tourism and international business. Until then, the only aircraft that could land in Bermuda - but some way away - were flying boats or those fitted with pontoons.
The former Civil Air Terminal is now the Bermuda International Airport. Former bases were featured on 1996 postage stamps. All were highlighted early in 1996 on a set of postage stamps issued by the Bermuda' General Post Office. These stamps were in values of $1, 90 cents, 75 cents, 60 cents, 25 cents and 20 cents. They showed the bases as they were during World War II. Included were the wartime Ordnance Island (Town of St. George) Submarine Base, the Royal Naval Dockyard, Fort Bell and Kindley Field base of the United States Army Air Force, the Darrell's Island flying boat base converted to military use, the US Navy Operating Base in Southampton Parish and the Canadian Forces Station at Daniel's Head in Sandys Parish.
The Americans left behind major additions to Bermuda's real estate in buildings. They included four ambulances, sports equipment, hurricane moorings, aircraft facilities, six major water catchments, a 15.5 million gallon water reservoir, two 40,000 gallon reverse osmosis desalinization plants, a tender pier, wharfs - and much more equipment.
The US Navy's library was donated. More than 1,000 volumes and reference works and shelving went to the Bermuda National Library. In sports equipment, baseball crazy Bermuda youngsters got 100 helmets, 54 bats, 24 sets of shin guards and 17 masks, thanks to the US Navy. In sports facilities, the Navy's one-time recreational area became the Bermuda Youth Athletic Association's new premises for baseball, soccer and golf.
Former buildings have new civilian tenants. Part of Kindley Field Road, named after World War 1 flying ace Captain Field Kindley, is now Cahow Way, for the Bermudian bird nearly made extinct when the base was built. Departments of the Bermuda Government - Education, Police and more - are here. Certain land areas are now public recreation. Some beaches on the former St. David's Island base, once available only to the military, are now prime attractions. They were opened on May 24, 1996.
Namely, sites that have an active hyperlink to this site and vice-versa. Others will be welcome if they too reciprocate the link and either relate directly to the former US military bases in Bermuda or are by persons who once served there, or their children.
In comparison, the Royal Navy Dockyard in Bermuda was built from 1815 for United Kingdom strategic purposes and the Royal Canadian Navy station which existed from 1941 to 1945 and then on its own from 1963 to 1993 was for Canadian and American defense.
Last Updated:
January 3, 2009
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