Name	Wheelus Air Base
Iata	MJI
Icao	HLLM
Type	Military
Operator	United States Air Force
Location	Tripoli
Elevation-f	36
Elevation-m	11
Coordinates
R1-number	03/21
R1-length-f	6,000
R1-length-m	1,829
R1-surface	Asphalt
R2-number	11/29
R2-length-f	11,076
R2-length-m	3,376
R2-surface	Asphalt

Wheelus Air Base was a United States Air Force base located in the Kingdom of Libya. Wheelus Air Base was originally built by the Italian Air Force in 1923 and known as Mellaha Air Base. Today the facility is known as Mitiga International Airport.

World War II

Mellaha was used by the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of North Africa, with the Germans using it for short range recon units, as well as coastal and naval recon units. Special weather recon units also existed at Mehalla. The main Luftwaffe unit was the 2nd staffel of the Aufklärungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14.

The squadron was equipped with twelve single-engined Henschel Hs 126, an aircraft with 2-man crews, which could cover approx 710 km, with a maximum speed of 360 km/h. Three liaison aircraft in the form of Fieseler Fi 156 Storch and a Junkers Ju 52 for transport of men and materiel.

It was captured by the British 8th Army in January 1943.

The US Army Air Force began using Mellaha as a base in January 1943. It was used by the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the 12th Air Force for B-24 bomb missions into Italy and southern Germany.

In addition, Mellaha Field was used by Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en-route to Benina Airport near Benghazi or to Tunis Airport, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.

On 15 April 1945 Mellaha AAF was taken over by USAAF’s Air Training Command. It was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field (AAF) on 17 May 1945 in honor of USAAF Lt Richard Wheelus who had died earlier that year in a plane crash in Iran.

Wheelus AAF was inactivated on 15 May 1947, then reactivated as Wheelus Air Base (Wheelus AB) on 1 June 1948 and transferred to the USAF Military Air Transport Service (MATS). Its host unit under MATS was the 1603d Air Transport Wing.

With the crowning of Idris I in 1951, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)-based fighter-bomber units also began using Wheelus AB and its nearby El Watia Gunnery Range for gunnery and bombing training. A further agreement between the United States and Libya, signed in 1954, granted the U.S. the use of Wheelus and its gunnery range until December 1971.

"Lady Be Good"

On 9 November 1958, British geologists flying over the Libyan Desert spotted an aircraft resting on the sand dunes approximately 400 statute miles (640 km) south of Benghazi, Libya. A ground party reached the site in March 1959 and discovered the plane to be the Lady Be Good, a B-24D Liberator of the USAAF's 376th Bomb Group (AAF Serial No. 41-24301).

The USAAF bomber had disappeared after a 4 April 1943 high-altitude bombing attack by 25 Liberators from an AAF base at Sulûq (near Benghazi) against the harbor facilities at Naples, Italy.

All planes but one returned to Allied territory that night—the one missing was the Lady Be Good.

Evidence at the site indicated that the Lady Be Good crew had become lost in the dark on the return from Naples and mistook the nighttime desert for the Mediterranean Sea. The aircrew had overflown Sulûq southward into the desert. With the B-24's fuel supply depleted, the nine men aboard had bailed out and disappeared while attempting to walk northward to civilization.

Intensive searches were made for clues as to the fate of the crew to no avail. In 1960, the remains of eight airmen were found, one near the plane and the other seven far to the north. The body of the ninth crewman was never found. Five had trekked 78 miles (125 km) before perishing, and one had gone 109 miles (175 km). In addition, they had lived eight days rather than only the two expected of men in the desert with little or no water.

Numerous parts from the Lady Be Good were returned to the U.S. for technical study.

In 1960, members of the 7272nd ABW donated funds for the design and manufacture of a memorial window to the Lady Be Good and its crew in the Wheelus AB base chapel.

Cold War use by USAF

Wheelus was first used by the USAAF as a bomber base in 1943. It was renamed Wheelus Air Base in 1945, and remained in use by the United States until 1970.

With its 4,600 Americans, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya once called it "a Little America...on the sparkling shores of the Mediterranean," although temperatures at the base frequently reached 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (43 to 50 degrees Celsius).

Military Air Transport Service use

The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) activated the 1603rd Air Transport Wing at Wheelus on 1 June 1948. The 1603rd flew C-47 and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus, and operated the base transport control center until 1952.

Headquarters, 7th Air Rescue Group was assigned to Wheelus along with the 58th Air Rescue Squadron at about this time. They flew SA-16s and H-19s. The 56th Air Rescue Squadron, stationed at Sidi Slimane, Morocco, the 57th Air Rescue Squadron stationed at Lajes Field, Azores, and the 59th Air Rescue Squadron, stationed at Dahran AB, Saudi Arabia, were units of the 7th ARGp along with the 58th ARS. At the time the Air Rescue Service was under the command and control of the Military Air Transport Command and Brigadier General Thomas J. Du Bose was Commander of the Air Rescue Service. (Added by TSgt Paul Garner, USAF (Ret) 7th ARS 1955 and the 56th ARS 1956)

The 58th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (58 ARRS) operated out of Wheelus until 1970 when they were relocated to the 67th ARRSQ in the UK. The 58 ARRS flew three HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopters, and three HC-130 refueling tankers.

MATS aircraft and personnel from Wheelus participated in Operation Hajji Baba in 1952. Also in 1952 the MATS 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing was reassigned to Wheelus from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The Wing (later Group) supported special operations in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Southwest Asia until being inactivated in 1956.

MATS withdrew and relocated to Rhein Main AB, Germany in January 1953. However, MATS and later Military Airlift Command (MAC) aircraft were frequent visitors at Wheelus and maintained a small detachment there until the base's closure in 1970.

Strategic Air Command use

As the Cold War overtook post-World War II international politics, on 16 November 1950 USAF's Strategic Air Command (SAC) began deploying B-50s, B-36s, B-47s and support aircraft (KB-29, KB-50, and KC-97 tankers) from US air bases to Wheelus. The base became one of several SAC forward operating locations (FOLs) in North Africa, becoming a vital link in SAC war plans for use as a bomber, tanker refueling and recon-fighter base.

Wheelus hosted SAC bomber deployments in 45-day rotational deployments, using Wheelus as a staging area for planned strikes against the Soviet Union.

SAC's use of Wheelus continued until 1970, when as part of the USAF withdrawal from the base, its rotational deployments ended.

USAFE use

Wheelus AB was reassigned from MATS to United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) on 16 October 1951, under USAFE's 7272nd Air Base Wing. The 7272nd was later designated the 7272nd Fighter Training Wing and became the host unit at Wheelus AB until the base's closure on 11 June 1970.

431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

The 431st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was activated when the 107th Fighter Squadron of the Michigan Air National Guard was ordered to active duty in June 1953. The squadron was reassigned from Selfridge AFB and deployed to Wheelus, where it was equipped with twenty-five F-86Fs, two T-33s, and one C-47. The squadron insignia adorned each side of the center fuselage, just over the wing. The tail markings consisted of a red-and-white comet design on the vertical tail. A white lightning flash decorated the red portion of the comet's tail.

In January 1955 the F-86D began to replace the F-86Fs, which were sent to NATO air forces. The squadron's tail markings changed with the F-86Ds having two or three horizontal red chevrons starting at the base of the rudder, with the chevron point touching the vertical fin's leading edge and angling towards the upper trailing edge of the rudder. Inside the rearmost chevron was a solid blue triangle.

In September 1958, the 431st FIS moved to Zaragoza Air Base, Spain, and was transferred from USAFE to SAC's 16th Air Force.

On 1 August 1956, the Headquarters of 17th Air Force moved to Wheelus Air Base, Libya, from Rabat, Morocco, where it remained until relocating to Ramstein AB, Germany, on 15 November 1959.

Annual Missile Launch Operation (AMLO)

The expanse of Libyan desert was used first by the 701st TMW, then later its successor, the 38th Tactical Missile Wing, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), beginning in October 1954, with three separate live launch operations for all of the operational squadrons using the TM-61 Matador. Operations Suntan (October 1954), Sunburst (June 1955), and Sunflash (March 1956) became annual qualification firings for all Matador squadrons based in Europe. There were 36 Matador launches from Wheelus in 1957, while there were only 13 launches at Cape Canaveral and only 25 from Holloman AFB in Alamagordo, New Mexico during the same time. The 1958 exercise from October 6 through the 19th of November, called "Operation Marblehead," utilized 19 C-130 Hercules and seven C-124 Globemasters just to move the 339 personnel and equipment of the 71st TMS from Bitburg to Wheelus and back. C-47 twin engined transports carried personnel back and forth as well. Not only did the 71st take 13 missiles and the required launchers and checkout vans, but also two complete MSQ units, plus personnel to back up the two Shanicle base units that were permanently installed at Wheelus. The exercise was followed by similar deployments from Hahn Air Base, and later Sembach Air Base, all units of the newly formed 38th TMW. The exercises were moved to Patrick AFB, FL, in 1959 for launches at Cape Canaveral.

The missile launch area was located 15 miles east of Tripoli, the remote southern section of the base, away from flight operations.

Detachment 1, 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing

The 20th Fighter Bomber Wing, based at RAF Wethersfield UK, established an operational detachment at Wheelus AB, in February 1958. This detachment managed the USAFE Weapons Training Center for month-long squadron rotations by the Europe-based USAFE tactical fighter wings.

This facility allowed USAFE units from Germany, such as the 36th and 49th TFWs in joint operations with their F-84 "Thunderjet" and the 50th TFW with F-100 Super Sabres trained at Wheelus. In addition, the United Kingdom based 20th and 48th TFWs with F-100Ds, and the 81st TFW trained in air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery and delivery of conventional ordnance and nuclear "shapes" at the weapons range about further east of the air base.

As the F-4 Phantom II replaced most USAFE fighters in the 1960s, Phantom detachment operations became the predominant activity at Wheelus. USAFE's use of Wheelus continued until 1970, when as part of the USAF withdrawal from the base, desert weapons range training ended.

USAF withdrawal

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1959, and what had been one of the world's poorest countries became extremely wealthy. The United States enjoyed a generally warm relationship with Libya and pursued policies centered on interests in operations at Wheelus Air Base and the considerable U.S. oil interests.

In September 1969 King Idris I was overthrown by Muammar al-Gaddafi. Gaddafi demanded that Wheelus, which he saw as a vestige of European colonialism, be closed and its facilities turned over to the Libyan government.

While the U.S. wished to retain Wheelus Air Base, the strategic value of the facility had declined with the development of nuclear missiles that had effectively replaced many bomber bases. Indeed, Wheelus had primarily served as a tactical fighter training facility in the 1960s.

The Wheelus base agreement had just two more years to run, and in December 1969, the U.S. agreed to vacate the facility by June 1970.

Cold War use by the Soviet Union

Following U.S. withdrawal, the base was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Airfield and went into use by the Soviet Union with the headquarters for the Libyan Air Force. The base was bombed by the United States in 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon.

Post-Cold War

The airfield was subsequently renamed Mitiga International Airport.

References

See also

Uqba ibn Nafi

External links

20th FDW/TFW F-100 photos

Lady Be Good Official Website

USAF Museum Lady Be Good Factsheet

USAF Museum Lady Be Good Stained Glass Window From Wheelus AB Chapel

Wheelus High School Ex Student Association

Pictorial History, AMLO, 38th TMW

Category:Airports in Libya Category:Military installations of Libya Category:Closed facilities of the United States Air Force Category:USAAF Air Transport Command Airfields - North Africa Category:World War II Desert Airfields Category:Libya – United States relations

fr:Wheelus Air Base