Tolemaida Army Airfield is a

Colombian Army The National Army of Colombia () is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, and is the second largest army in the ...

Airfield located in Nilo, a municipality of the Cundinamarca department in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Facilities

The

air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s: 04/22 has an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

pavement measuring and 04L/22R with a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

surface measuring . It is the home of the Colombian National Training Center. Officially the "Teniente General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla" Army Air Field, the air facilities are part of the larger Tolemaida Military Fort which is located in the town of Nilo, Cundinamarca. Tolemaida is adjacent to the town of Melgar which is located in the Tolima Department, right across the Sumapaz River; therefore, Tolemaida is commonly mistaken for being located in Melgar. Additionally, there is an actual Air Force Base located in Melgar, the

Lieutenant Colonel Luis F. Pinto Parra Air Base Lieutenant Colonel Luis Francisco Pinto Parra Air Base () is a Colombian military base assigned to the Colombian Aerospace Force (''Fuerza Aeroespacial Colombiana'' or FAC) Combat Air Command No. 4 (''Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 4'' or CACOM 4) ...

, which is the location of the Comando Aéreo de Combate #4 and the Escuela de Helicopteros de la Fuerza Publica, where aviators from all military services, the National Police, and allied armed forces undergo basic helicopter training.

History

A joint commission of the

Colombian government The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...

and FAC released a report in 2015 documenting the alleged rape of at least 54 girls by United States military personnel between 2003 and 2007, concentrated in and around the Tolemaida Army Airfield and Melgar. The "underage girls were sexually abused by nearby stationed military contractors “who moreover filmed he abuseand sold the footage as pornographic material." Due to bilateral immunity agreements the men were immune from prosecution by Colombia. In January 2020, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and Colombian troops conducted airborne insertion from U.S. and Colombian

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

aircraft and then carried out exercises simulating the capture of an airfield.Jump alongside the 82nd Airborne with a paratrooper's wild skydive video from Colombia
5 February 2020. ''We Are the Mighty''. Retrieved 15 July 2020. Consisting of around 75 paratroopers from the U.S. Army's

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into hostile areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

and 40 personnel from U.S. Army South working with Colombian troops, the airborne assault exercise allowed personnel from both countries to co-operate and exchange tactical knowledge of parachute drops.

Gallery

File:Special_Forces_Colombia.jpg, File:Torre_de_Salto_Tolemaida.jpg,

References

{{authority control Airports in Colombia Buildings and structures in Cundinamarca Department Military installations of Colombia

Facilities

History

Gallery

See also

References