- \n
- September 1940:<\/strong> The Destroyers for Bases Agreement gives the US rights to build military bases on British territory, Trinidad included, in exchange for fifty ageing US destroyers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 1942:<\/strong> Edinburgh Field opens on the former Robinson family sugar estate, built as an overflow strip for the increasingly congested Waller Field nearby.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 1942 to 1943:<\/strong> The US Army paves and extends the field into three parallel runways as U-boat activity in the Caribbean intensifies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 3 November 1943:<\/strong> Edinburgh Field is officially renamed Carlsen Field (one source gives 1945, an outlier against the weight of evidence).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fall 1943:<\/strong> The Navy’s 80th Seabees build a blimp hangar, mooring circle and helium-purification plant for lighter-than-air anti-submarine patrols.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 26 March 1948:<\/strong> Redesignated Carlsen Air Force Base.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 28 May 1949:<\/strong> Transferred to the US Navy as NAF (LTA) Carlsen Field.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 10 January 1950:<\/strong> Formally disestablished.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Built to relieve an overcrowded Waller Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Edinburgh Field\u2019s story begins with the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of September 1940, the same deal that gave the US Waller Field nearby, Trinidad\u2019s main air base and a key stop on the Air Transport Command\u2019s South Atlantic ferry route to Africa and Europe. Waller quickly became a victim of its own importance. As traffic built up, congestion there became so acute that combat aircraft had to be moved out to Edinburgh Field to free up space. What opened in 1942 as a modest overflow strip on the old Robinson estate grew within a year into something far larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As German U-boats pressed their campaign against Allied shipping in the Caribbean through 1942 and 1943, threatening the tankers carrying Trinidad\u2019s refined oil to the war effort, the US Army paved and extended Edinburgh Field for combat use. Rather than one lengthened runway, it grew into three parallel paved strips (two at 5,000 by 150 feet, a third, shorter strip kept mainly for emergencies), plus a dedicated area for airship operations. It became, in effect, the largest airbase complex on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Briefing](\"https:\/\/www.trinigo.com\/trinidad-tobago\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wallerfield-briefing-room-342-FH_000851-600px.jpg\" "\\"TriniGo\\"")
The briefing room at Waller Field, Trinidad, April 1943, the base whose overcrowding pushed combat aircraft out to Edinburgh Field. U.S. Army Air Forces photo, National Archives (NAID 204828489), unrestricted use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The renaming, and an unsolved question<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
On 3 November 1943, Edinburgh Field was officially renamed Carlsen Field. Multiple wartime and postwar records agree on the date (one Trinidad Express account gives 1945, but it stands alone against the weight of evidence). What none of them agree on, or record at all, is who exactly “Carlsen” was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s a real gap, not just an oversight. Waller Field, by contrast, is thoroughly documented: it honoured US Army Air Corps Major Alfred J. Waller, a decorated WW1 combat pilot who died in a 1937 air crash. No equivalent record for Carlsen has surfaced despite checks against the WW2 Database, Wikipedia, Military Wiki, the Air Force Historical Research Agency\u2019s index, and a Trinidad Express feature on the field\u2019s history, none of which name a namesake, rank or first name. Until a primary source such as a unit history or a wartime newspaper announcement turns up, \u201cCarlsen\u201d should be treated as an unsolved piece of our own local history rather than a settled fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A working base, not just a runway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Carlsen Field became one of the busiest anti-submarine and combat bases in the Caribbean. The 25th Bombardment Group made it their headquarters from November 1942 to August 1943, and squadrons rotated through flying B-18 Bolos, later A-29 Hudsons and B-25 Mitchells, hunting U-boats along the shipping lanes (one squadron, the 23rd Antisubmarine, split its time between Carlsen and Zandery Field in Suriname). From late 1943, the base also hosted US Navy lighter-than-air airships, after the Navy\u2019s 80th Seabees built a steel blimp hangar, mooring circle and helium-purification plant on site. British Royal Air Force aircraft used the field too, and US Army infantry and anti-aircraft units defended it on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the base cost the people who lived there<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The military\u2019s arrival meant eviction for the families farming the old estate land. Samuel Sookoo, who was ordered off his land to make way for the base, recalled it plainly: “When I was told to vacate my land at Carlsen Field, the US authorities told me they will pay for the house, but man does not own land. It all belongs to God.” He waited years before he could return. When permission finally came, it came with a condition, one he attributed to Dr Eric Williams: “You can go back to the land, but build a board house, not a concrete house.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a reminder that the base\u2019s story isn\u2019t only a story of squadrons and runways. For the families who worked the Robinson estate\u2019s cane and clay, Carlsen Field was land taken and, eventually, unevenly given back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Closure and what\u2019s left today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The base outlived the war by only a few years. It was redesignated Carlsen Air Force Base on 26 March 1948, transferred to the US Navy on 28 May 1949 as Naval Air Facility (Lighter-Than-Air) Carlsen Field, and formally disestablished on 10 January 1950. Afterwards, the land returned to agriculture, including dairying, before gradually giving way to the farms and residential streets that cover most of the old footprint today. National Flour Mills now holds much of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the runways left their names behind: Edinburgh, for the housing development now standing on the old airfield and the Robinson estate before it, and Xeres, for a street tracing the line of the base\u2019s second runway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Where was Carlsen Field?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Carlsen Field was in Chaguanas, Trinidad, on land that had been the Robinson family\u2019s Edinburgh sugar estate. The area is now covered largely by the Edinburgh 500 housing development and Cashew Gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who was Carlsen Field named after?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not confirmed. Despite checks against multiple WW2 military history sources, no record has surfaced naming who \u201cCarlsen\u201d was. This contrasts with nearby Waller Field, which was clearly named for Major Alfred J. Waller, a WW1 combat pilot who died in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why was Edinburgh Field renamed Carlsen Field?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The renaming took effect on 3 November 1943, as the airfield grew from a small overflow strip into a major combat base with three runways and its own anti-submarine and airship operations. No surviving public source explains the specific reasoning or namesake behind the new name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened to Carlsen Field after WW2?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It was redesignated Carlsen Air Force Base in March 1948, transferred to the US Navy in May 1949, and disestablished in January 1950. The land returned to agricultural and residential use, and today the streets Edinburgh and Xeres trace the outline of its old runways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- 1942:<\/strong> Edinburgh Field opens on the former Robinson family sugar estate, built as an overflow strip for the increasingly congested Waller Field nearby.<\/li>\n\n\n\n