PSA Panama International Terminal is a port built by

PSA International PSA International Pte Ltd is a port operator and supply chain company, with flagship operations in Singapore and Antwerp. One of the largest port operators in the world, PSA has terminals across 26 countries, including deepsea, rail and inland f ...

on the site of the former

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Rodman Naval Base located southwest of

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

at the entrance to 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 Channel ( ...

from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

US Naval Station 1937-1999

US and Colombian ships at NS Rodman in 1989

Rodman Naval Station construction of the

station began in 1932 and completed in 1937 in the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...

. The station was named for Admiral Hugh Rodman who served as Marine Superintendent and Superintendent of Transportation of the Canal Zone in 1914. Naval Station Rodman played an important role 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in support of the Pacific War and during the Cold War. Built in 1943, the U.S. Naval Station Panama Canal (Rodman Naval Station) provided fuel, provisions and other support to military ships passing through the Panama Canal. Until its March 11, 1999 handover to Panama, Rodman was staffed by over 200 military and civilian personnel. The naval station included a port facility with three docks, 87 housing units, warehouses, industrial areas, an office building, and other facilities. Rodman hosted the location of Commander-in-Chief Atlantic Fleet Detachment South (CINCLANTFLT Detachment South), for some time the naval component of the

United States Southern Command The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Doral, Florida in Greater Miami, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning, o ...

(SOUTHCOM). CINCLANTFLT took the lead in SOUTHCOM naval exercises, such as

UNITAS Unitas may refer to: * 306 Unitas, a main belt asteroid * UNITAS, a multi-lateral naval exercise in South and Central America * Unitas Capital, a private equity firm, formerly known as CCMP Capital Asia * '' Humani generis unitas'', a planned en ...

. With the closure of Rodman Naval Station, naval activities in the hemisphere are now coordinated from

United States Fourth Fleet The U.S. Fourth Fleet is a United States Navy numbered fleet. It is the Naval Component Command of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). The Fourth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. It is responsible for ...

headquarters at

Naval Station Mayport Naval Station Mayport is a major United States Navy base in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a protected harbor that can accommodate aircraft carrier-size vessels, ship's intermediate maintenance activity (SIMA) and a military airfield (Admi ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. Rodman also hosted the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS), which offered

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Am ...

training to Naval and

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

personnel from throughout the region.

Closure

The base's role waned after the 1960s but was retained until 1999 as the US transferred control of the Canal Zone to Panama. It was renamed as the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base.

Redevelopment

In March 2007, PSA announced plans to build a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

in Panama; its first in the Americas, which would be sited at the Pacific entrance to the

. The port concession was approved by the

National Assembly of Panama The National Assembly of Panama ( es, Asamblea Nacional de Panamá), formerly the Legislative Assembly of Panama ''(Asamblea Legislativa de Panamá)'', is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Panama. It is a unicameral le ...

in April 2008. The port opened in December 2010; the first

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...

to use the port was ''Beluga Festival''.

References

External links

PSA Panama factsheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Psa Panama International Terminal Ports and harbours of Panama Panama Canal

US Naval Station 1937-1999

Closure

Redevelopment

See also

References

External links