Tolemaida Army Airfield is a

Colombian Army The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, ...

Airfield located in Nilo, a municipality of the Cundinamarca department in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Facilities

The

air base An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

resides at an

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of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s: 04/22 has an

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pavement measuring and 04L/22R with a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface measuring . It is the home of the Colombian National Training Center. Officially the "Teniente General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla" Army Air Field, the air facilities are part of the larger Tolemaida Military Fort which is located in the town of Nilo, Cundinamarca. Tolemaida is fully adjacent to the town of Melgar which is located in the Tolima Department, right across the Sumapaz river; therefore, Tolemaida is commonly mistaken of being located in Melgar. Additionally, there is an actual Air Force Base located in Melgar, the Lieutenant Colonel Luis F. Pinto Parra Air Base, which is the location of the Comando Aereo de Combate #4 and the Escuela de Helicopteros de la Fuerza Publica, where aviators from all military services, National Police and allied armed forces undergo basic helicopter training.

History

A joint commission of the

Colombian government The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...

and FAC released a report in 2015 documenting the alleged rape of at least 54 girls by United States military personnel between 2003 and 2007 concentrating in and around the Tolemaida Army Airfield and Melgar. The "underage girls were sexually abused by nearby stationed military contractors “who moreover filmed he abuseand sold the films as pornographic material." Due to bilateral immunity agreements the men were immune from prosecution by Colombia. In January 2020, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and Colombian troops conducted airborne insertion from U.S. and Colombian

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

aircraft and then carried out exercises simulating the capture of an airfield.Jump alongside the 82nd Airborne with a paratrooper's wild skydive video from Colombia
5 February 2020. ''We Are the Mighty''. Retrieved 15 July 2020. Consisting of around 75 paratroopers from the U.S. Army's

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into denied areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

and 40 personnel from U.S. Army South working with Colombian troops, the airborne assault exercise allowed personnel from both countries to co-operate and exchange tactical knowledge of parachute drops.

Gallery

File:Special_Forces_Colombia.jpg, File:Torre_de_Salto_Tolemaida.jpg,

References

{{authority control Airports in Colombia Buildings and structures in Cundinamarca Department Military installations of Colombia

Facilities

History

Gallery

See also

References