It 'a place in Florida, Opa-Locka Executive Airport, which can not simply remain in the history books. Many historical events have their beginning from the airport there, he moved in 1920, historians might ask, get 'What's next? "
Part 1 of history of Opa-Locka Airport, said of his start and the subsequent development in the midst of a series of changes in the air and geopolitics. In addition, nine cases said that the students could show the story and say, 'WhyOpa-Locka? "
I have no crystal ball to answer the "What's next?" But can a theory to explain which could provide "Opa-Locka Why?" But first ...
And why were Opa-Locka Airport is in the middle of things for almost one hundred years - let's take a closer look at the nine historical events.
Amelia Earhart's disappearance
As mentioned in Part 1, this is America the greatest unsolved mysteries, and is started in this place in Florida, Opa-Locka Airport.
Untilmoved in a Lockheed Electra 10E on June 1, 1937 Amelia Earhart became an international celebrity, first as "Lucky Lindy" means, then as "Lady Lindy" because of his 1932 first-ever non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic by a woman rider. Five years after the historic flight of Charles Lindbergh was now "Queen of the Air."
A position that the catapult - which had already launched a successful writer and strong that he had served as editor of Cosmopolitan magazine Aviationthe publishing industry and a wedding - some said "convenience" - George P. Putnam, who has written two books published.
He also promoted women in aviation through the competition in the "Powder Puff Derby." And (see emulated to improve their tall, thin, someone said that the appearance of Charles Lindbergh), their high-profile endorsements of products such as luggage, cigarettes and women's clothing and sports popular with their American women.
When she and navigator Fred Noonan began to Opa-LockaJune 1, 1937, are entitled to the Caribbean, then made several stops in South America, Africa, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, arrived at Lae, New Guinea, June 29. Only 7,000 miles from their flight was 29,000 miles - but it was the hardest part. Almost everyone was on the Pacific.
The aircraft was launched July 2, headed north-east of Iceland Howland, a single point on a map. It 'disappeared near Howland, are never heard from again. The Navy and the otherResearch vessels to 150,000-square-mile area for 6-7 days without success. The disappearance has generated many theories, but the mystery was never solved.
Bay of Pigs
It is no secret now, but in 1961 was disastrous invasion of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs invasion planned by the CIA in Opa-Locka airport, the troops were trained here were, and 20 B-26 were ready to fight here. The troops completed training, and launching the invasion took place in Guatemala and Nicaragua. CheerfulBanda of the Castro rebels overthrew Fulgencio Batista's 80 in 1959 and Cuba a communist state. The objective in the Bay of Pigs invasion was to overthrow Castro.
E. Howard Hunt (Watergate conspirator then), followed by friends in the Cuban exile community in Miami supports, spent some time in Opa-Locka drawing up plans for a new Cuban government. The plans were thrown into file 13, when Cuban forces defeated the invaders - Hunting destroy the reputation of being a spy master. The invasion was planned inThe Eisenhower administration, but driven the new Kennedy administration and the U.S. Department of State for the defeat that has helped consolidate Castro's power.
Missile crisis in Cuba
When an American U-2 spy plane based Soviet missiles in Cuba to the United States in 1962, he discovered led to a confrontation that was the closest the world came to nuclear war. Opa-Locka Airport, fighting and running down to new tenants after being found on the losing side of the Bay of Pigs, wasRace to the armed struggle again.
President John F. Opa-Locka recovered for use as a command for an invasion of Cuba BASE Peninsula Kennedy. Fourteen days after the start of the crisis, Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev agreed that the U.S. secretly removed its missiles in Turkey (it is) and the Soviet Union remove its missiles in Cuba (it did). Opa-Locka Airport back to its commercial possibilities. In 1967 was the busiest airport in the world passenger.
The CIA andOpa-Locka Airport
Shake Left in the banana republics of Latin America in the first half of 1950 - by which a perceived threat, which developed 1823 Monroe Doctrine, to keep European powers from the Western hemisphere - Opa-Locka was a comfortable space available Florida and bring to mount covert operations against them. The CIA continued to Opa-Locka to be used for this purpose to the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961.
The infamous "Black Flights"
A BananaRepublic (a term coined in 1904, O. Henry, used to designate a country of large-scale agricultural plantations) was from Guatemala. Left when President Jacobo Arbenz flirtation with the Communists in 1952, then started on the reform of the United Fruit land (which had links with the new Eisenhower administration) has done the contrary, red flags went in the United States, except in Guatemala.
The United States has decided to depose Arbenz, and Hunt says that much of the planning of a secret "safe house"Miami, with more than a little help from Guatemalan exiles in Opa-Locka Airport. In fact, as the coup attempt was approaching, there was almost every night flights from Guatemala to Opa-Locka, anti-Arbenz leads people to training. Thus, the term white flight ever, '"which has been so far formally.
Even if no invasion was necessary, the operation was successful. Arbenz was overthrown without bloodshed. But it has led to decades of unrest in Guatemala and its neighbors.
MarielBoatlift
Demonstrated in 1980, 10,000 asylum seekers entered the Peruvian Embassy in Havana, Castro said, okay, leave Cuba if you want - and 125,000 have. Most of them went to Miami and Opa-Locka airport was necessary for every historical event that has arrived. The U.S. Coast Guard - clearly at the airport before the match, wave after wave of refugee process - Castro discovered the doors of prisons and psychiatric facilities had opened, and 2% of refugeesCriminals. I have been denied asylum.
Hurricane Andrew
The destruction or damage to homes south of Miami 117 000 strong 165 mph winds, Hurricane Andrew displaced tens of thousands of people in 1992. Opa-Locka airport was the only relatively unscathed in South Florida, where a massive recovery effort will be settled.
The end of an airship
In part because of its spaciousness, Opa-Locka airport was an important step for "airship" in 1930. The enormousAirships had been an important, but evolving roles in World War I, these break down, so few people in the city of Miami, the purchase of an old World War II hangar in Key West, Opa-Locka, and moving them to store as an airship station in 1929. The U.S. airships Akron and Macon and the German Graf Spee announced visits from Opa-Locka. It was not unusual at that time a blimp in the skies of Miami to see.
The U.S. Navy Akron was an accident risk flying aircraft carriers - theCurtiss Sparrowhawk biplane launched - that in retrospect, probably should never his baptism Goodyear hangar in Ohio have left. It 'was in the lead in Washington March 4, 1933, when President Roosevelt took the oath of office. Almost no one knows then, but Akron was an unavoidable accident.
Seven days later, headed for the Akron Opa-Locka, bound for Panama, the search for a potential air base site. During the return trip the airship, go back to Opa-Locka was so their weaponCrews could get some target practice, among other reasons. Opa-Locka leave March 22, returning to their base in Lakehurst, New Jersey. On April 3 VIP with potential commercial airships' loaded, which unexpectedly encountered a violent storm from New Jersey and crashed into the sea, killing 73
Formation of the 9 / 11 Hijackers
In the months before 9 / 11, terrorists were moving freely in southern Florida and the United States. Only a few places they have visited, were moreimportant to their mission as a simulator, Inc., in Opa-Locka Airport. That's where Mohammed Atta, the leader, and a friend, Marwan Al-Shehhi paid $ 1,500 to get 90 minutes a day for two days to spend how to fly a Boeing 767. The simulator, which controls much like a 767, the topography of New York has stored in it. Investigators believe the two practiced crashing into the World Trade Center.
So ... Why Opa-Locka Airport?
So why fill the Opa-Locka AirportHistory books? Here's my theory. Some of these historic events to Opa-Locka Airport in the history books for the same reason some people climb mountains: because it's right there. But it goes further:
The Cold War. Although it began life in 1920, the airport is first and foremost a child of the Cold War. Sure it was an outstanding role in World War II, but only after the war that Opa-Locka Airport almost winged in one word. Its position. Think of Florida as a finger pointingthe United States is in the middle of a huge change, with Miami and Opa-Locka on the nail. The nail of the index finger at the center of the action, is not it? Geopolitics. The winds of change often give rise to extreme measures. Opa-Locka airport has given the U.S. a haven for the fight against what they perceived as threats to their political health - in Cuba, Central America and the rest of Latin America.
Formation of the 9 / 11 hijackers?Why do they have to learn this place in Florida, the big planes? I think, Opa-Locka airport was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
