Beane Air Force Base was a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

base located near

Vieux Fort Vieux Fort is one of 10 districts of the Caribbean island country of Saint Lucia. Vieux Fort is also the name of the main town in the district. It is the home of the second-largest town in Saint Lucia and is the home of Saint Lucia's internati ...

, Saint Lucia, in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It is now the site of

Hewanorra International Airport Hewanorra International Airport , located near Vieux Fort Quarter, Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean, is the larger of Saint Lucia's two airports and is managed by the Saint Lucia Air and Seaports Authority (SLASPA). It is on the southern cape of ...

. The base was probably named for

James Beane Lieutenant James Dudley Beane (January 20, 1896 – October 30, 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories. Biography He was born on January 20, 1896. Beane attended Concord High School. He was employed in Boston bef ...

, a US Army Air Force World War I flying ace.

History

Beane Field was used as a military airfield by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Sixth Air Force Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Music * Sixth interval (music)s: ** major sixth, a musical interval ** minor si ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Construction was completed on 15 Nov. 1942, with a mission to defend the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. The

5th Bombardment Squadron ''005'' (pronounced "''double-o five''") is a 1981 arcade video game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings" ...

(

9th Bombardment Group 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

) and

59th Bombardment Squadron The 59th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was first activated in Panama in 1941 during the expansion of the United States Army Air Corps before World War II. Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron ...

(

25th Bombardment Group Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash th ...

) operated

B-18 Bolo The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American heavy bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company f ...

bombers from the airfield from 28 Sept. 1941 - 24 Mar. 1944 flying antisubmarine patrols. With the end of World War II, Beane Field was reduced to a skeleton staff. Its primary mission was with the Military Air Transport Service, acting as a weather reporting station and as a military airfield for transport aircraft. The airfield's control tower was closed on 14 January 1946 for a brief period, but was reopened on 23 July 1946. The airfield's primarily unit was the MATS 6th Weather Squadron (Regional), with overall command of the base being that of the 24th Composite Wing, headquartered at

Ramey AFB Ramey may refer to: * Ramey Air Force Base, a former base in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico *Ramey, Pennsylvania * Ramey, Puerto Rico, a US sub-orbital launch site * Ramey House, an historic mansion in Tyler, Texas, USA People * Ramey Dawoud, Sudanese Ame ...

(now

Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen is a United States Coast Guard Air Station located at the Rafael Hernandez International Airport (formerly Ramey Air Force Base), in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. History United States Coast Guard Air Station Borinque ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. The facility was renamed Beane Air Force Base in 1948. It was closed on 28 May 1949, as a result of budgetary cutbacks, with right of re-entry retained by the United States. Agreements for the base's disposition were subsequently reached with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and, later, the Saint Lucia government upon that state's independence. The former

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

base was then refurbished and converted into Hewanorra International Airport. There remains a disused northeast–southwest runway, north of the main east–west runway, that was part of the military airfield. It is in poor condition. In 1966, St. Jude's Hospital was founded in the abandoned medical facility of the base by a nun from Kansas,

Mary Irma Hilger Sister Mary Irma Hilger (July 12, 1917 – February 22, 2003) was an American religious sister, who trained as a nurse and founded the St. Jude Hospital and nurse's training school on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. She has been called the "Fl ...

of the

Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother are a Catholic congregation of Franciscan religious sisters founded in Rome, Italy, in 1883, who serve worldwide, particularly in the field of healthcare. Foundations The congregation was founded at the initiat ...

. The hospital served the 70,000 residents of the southern end of the island until destroyed by fire in 2009.

References

{{USAAF 6th Air Force World War II Destroyers for Bases Agreement airfields Installations of the United States Air Force Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia Military airbases established in 1948 Military installations closed in 1949