Really? I thought RAF Fairford was a British-run base used by the Americans. I’ve had friends who fly B-52s be based there for OIF/OEF. Diego Garcia has already been mentioned, but I thought that was a British-run base as well.
Do they call Fairford something else, or am I mistaken?
Tripler
I’ve never been to the UK, so I could be mistaken.
For some reason all the American air bases in the UK Have " RAF … " in front of them. I suppose this is just a courtesy on behalf of the US . I shall try and do some research on this.
I have not been able to find anything about why the bases are called " RAF …". My guess is that the actual land is owned by the British Ministry of Defence and they lease the whole thing to the USAF. I suppose there must be a law in the UK banning foreign governments from having bases on UK territory. By calling them RAF that is a neat way of getting round that problem.
I used to live quite near RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall and I can assure you that they were 100% American . From the gate guards , to the schools and shops. We used to call the place " Little America" .
Back in the mid 60’s I was talking to a member of the RAF police. This was during the time of " Ban the Bomb" and protests about nuclear disarmament. Some of the protesters were attempting to break into the American bases. This RAF guy said that during these attempts the RAF police were deployed on the outer perimeter to stop this. The reason given was that if the protesters had entered the US base they could have been shot by the US military guards. The RAF police were they to stop this happening. I don’t know if he was pulling my leg or was serious.
it’s politically embarrassing to admit that they’re actually wholly American enclaves. Though most were constructed for the RAF in the '30s or '40s. Many on the hard Left would like to see the Americans kicked out tomorrow, and this was briefly Labour party policy in the early 1980s.
Um… actually we took over the entire island. The average Cuban didn’t have much choice in the matter. We took The Phillipines and Puerto Rico in the bargain, in the former case President McKinley thought we could “Chistianize” the heathens :rolleyes: , which must have come as some surprise to millions of that nation’s Catholics (although, who knows, maybe McKinley didn’t recognize the papist heathens either).
This link provides a much more cyical view of the bases. Apparently the US now has over 890 bases abroad. This is what Pax Americana looks like.
Thanks for clarifying that - I’ve been to a couple of these bases, and it’s always puzzled me that I never saw any British troops there. :smack: