AMERICA'S LEGACY IN PANAMA

PANAMA CANAL TREATY TRANSITION

END OF AN ERA

U.S. MILITARY IN PANAMA

U.S. MILITARY IN REGION-History

LIFE AFTER SOUTHCOM

SOUTHCOM TODAY

PANAMA

By WHO /By Others

	All-weather jet aircraft airport facilities, including 8,500-foot runway and taxi ramps, four large hangars, passenger terminal, and refueling facilities;
	Several large office buildings, retail sales stores, warehouses, grocery store, two community clubs (Officers Club and Noncommissioned Officers Club), cafeteria, barracks buildings;
	Recreation center, bowling alley, gymnasium, swimming pool, theater, outdoor recreation stores, horse stables area;
	Elementary school, chapel, post office, fire station, veterinary clinic, gas station;
	706 family housing units
	Secondary sewage treatment plant (the only in Panama).
	Adjusted book value: $1,187,900,000.

HOWARD AIR FORCE BASE (1941-1999)  -- Howard Air Force Base supported U.S. interests in Latin America, including defense of the Panama Canal, since the 1940s and -- from 1992-1999 -- also hosted the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force South, one of the Department of Defense's regional counter-narcotics centers.  [Photo courtesy of ARI from its website at www.ari.gob, section on Howard]

Last units stationed at Howard:

	24th Wing (last Wing commander -- Colonel Gregory L. Trebon).
	310th Squadron which consisted primarily of the twin-engine C-27 Spartan airlift aircraft (smaller version of the C-130 Hercules aircraft), a C-21 (737) Distinguished Visitors airlift aircraft and a special C-130 aircraft.  (Howard AFB was the only one throughout the Air Force to have C-27 aircraft.)
	Coronet  Oak, with Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130 aircraft and aircrews on rotational duty,  operated as a Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve detachment under operational control of the 24th Wing.
	Coronet Nighthawk F-15 and F-16 rotational duty fighter aircraft and aircrews from Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units.
	Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-South, the Department of Defense's regional counter-narcotics center responsible for detection and monitoring of suspected narco-trafficking aircraft and vessels in and from South America and for providing a range of support to allied nations' counter-narcotics efforts.

USE BY PANAMA:

Since 1999 following the transfer of Howard to the Panamanian Government, ARI has invested thousands of dollars for maintenance of Howard while developing a general land-use plan and concurrently conducting an inventory of all properties on Howard to establish values of the properties at the national and international levels.

ARI has been promoting Howard for a Panama-Pacific Special Economic Area primarily as a major multi-modal transportation and distribution center for the public and private sectors (since the base is located across the canal close to both the port of Balboa and the recently completely renovated Panama Railroad which now primarily transports containers between the Atlantic and Pacific ports). After the Executive Branch submitted a proposed bill to the Panamanian National Assembly in September 2003, the National Assembly, after three rounds of debate, passed it as Law 21 in July 2004 which created the Panama-Pacific Special Economic Area as an autonomous agency of the Government.  As announced in February 2005, the large, lucrative project for a tax-free manufacturing, air cargo handling and distribution and import/export zone in and around Howard will be submitted for international bids in November 2005.

Agencies and organizations now at Howard (mostly Panamanian government) include Howard National Air Service Center; elements of the Panamanian Government's Public Security and National Defense Council; Panama's first Civil Protection Academy; Panama's National System of Civil Protection (SINOPROC); Howard Aviation and Logistics Education and Training Center; and DELL Computer Corporation which established in 2003 an international call center for computer support services in a facility constructed for it.

Four government ministries (Commerce and Industries; Housing; Work; and Children, Youth and Family ministries) are planned to be relocated to Howard from their current location in Panama City if approved by the National Assembly.