This US Military Base on Foreign Soil Is Over a Century Old

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Each state has at least one military base, though many states have several dozen.
• The U.S. has a total of 800 military bases worldwide.
• Also, Discover “The Next NVIDIA”

Military bases are scattered throughout the United States. According to the Pentagon and the Military Analysis Network, America is home to between 450 and 500 military bases. Each state has at least one base, though many states have several dozen. For instance, Texas has 59 bases and California has 123. Some of the most well-known military bases are Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Campbell along the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. But American military bases are not only located in America. The U.S. has a total of 800 military bases worldwide, spanning multiple countries throughout the world.

The majority of American bases are found within the contiguous United States, followed by Europe and Southeast Asia. Camp Humphreys calls Southeast Asia home and is one of the largest US military bases abroad, but it is not the oldest, having opened in 1950. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the study, U.S. Military Bases Abroad, 1776-2021, by David Vine, professor at the Department of Anthropology at American University, to determine America’s oldest overseas military bases. We ranked the bases according to the year they opened, listing the 23 bases founded by 1943 at the latest. Data on the number of active-duty personnel and bases within each country and estimated land acreage of each base came from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a military think-tank.

Why We Are Writing About US Military Bases Abroad

This list is comprised of 23 bases, 13 of which are located in Puerto Rico and operated by the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The U.S. usually establishes bases in locations where there is a need to secure a position or maintain assets via American personnel and supplies. Puerto Rico holds an important strategic position between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The first of these bases was constructed in 1902. In the wake of the United States’ victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Rico was one of the territories the U.S. received. Following that war, Cuba gained independence from Spain and agreed to lease Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. Navy on its southeastern shore in 1903. Other possessions the US secured from Spain in the Pacific – Guam and Wake Island – have military bases. Four of America’s oldest overseas bases are in the United Kingdom, established there just after America entered the war in 1941. That same year, the U.S. began leasing the Thule Air Base in Greenland from Denmark, which, at more than 233,000 acres, is by far the largest overseas military base by physical size.

Here are America’s oldest military bases abroad:

23. RAF Welford Ammo Storage Area, United Kingdom

• Year opened: 1943
• Acreage: 736
• Location: Oxfordshire, U.K.
• Active-duty personnel in country: 10,770

22. RAF Feltwell, United Kingdom

• Year opened: 1942
• Acreage: 305
• Location: Thetford, U.K.
• Active-duty personnel in country: 10,770

21. RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom

• Year opened: 1942
• Acreage: 696
• Location: Molesworth, U.K.
• Active-duty personnel in country: 10,770

20. RAF Alconbury, United Kingdom

• Year opened: 1942
• Acreage: 218
• Location: Great Stukeley, U.K.
• Active-duty personnel in country: 10,770

19. Cabeza De Perro, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1942
• Acreage: 29
• Location: Ceiba, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

18. Wake Island Airfield, Wake Island

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 5
• Location: Wake Island
• Active-duty personnel in country: 2,600

17. Vieques West, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 275
• Location: Vieques, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

16. Mount Pirata, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 59
• Location: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

15. Roosevelt Rds Naval Station USARC, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 29
• Location: Ceiba, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

14. Luis Munoz Marin IAP, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 95
• Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

13. Fort Allen, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 117
• Location: Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

12. Thule Greenland, Greenland (Denmark)

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 233,034
• Location: North Star Bay, Greenland
• Active-duty personnel in country: 147

11. Argentia Newfoundland, Canada

• Year opened: 1941
• Acreage: 161
• Location: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
• Active-duty personnel in country: 185

10. MTA Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1940
• Acreage: 14,650
• Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

9. Salinas N00207, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1940
• Acreage: 249
• Location: Salinas, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

8. Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

• Opening year: 1936
• Location: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

7. Johnston Atoll Airfield, Johnston Atoll

• Year opened: 1934
• Acreage: 684
• Location: Johnston Atoll

6. Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1923
• Acreage: 1,635
• Location: Guaynabo City, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

5. AMSA 161, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1923
• Acreage: less than 1 acre
• Location: Guaynabo City, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

4. CPT Euripides Rubio Jr. USARC, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1922
• Acreage: 63
• Location: Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

3. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

• Year opened: 1903
• Acreage: 28,817
• Location: Guantanamo, Cuba
• Active-duty personnel in country: 1,004

2. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico

• Year opened: 1902
• Acreage: less than 1 acre
• Location: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
• Active-duty personnel in country: 13,571

1. Agana, Guam

• Year opened: 1899
• Acreage: 22
• Location: Apra Harbor, Guam
• Active-duty personnel in country: 11,295

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