Price Barracks

Price Barracks
Ladyville, Belize

Members of the Belize Defense Force are instructed on controlled falling techniques at Price Barracks
Price Barracks
Location in Belize
Coordinates 17°32′41″N 88°18′21″W / 17.54482°N 88.30572°W / 17.54482; -88.30572Coordinates: 17°32′41″N 88°18′21″W / 17.54482°N 88.30572°W / 17.54482; -88.30572
Type Barracks
Site information
Owner Government of Belize
Operator Belize Defence Force
Site history
Built 1960s
Built for War Office
In use 1960s-Present
Garrison information
Occupants Belize Defence Force

Price Barracks is a military installation located just north of Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport which is located in Ladyville some 8 miles to the north west of Belize City. It is the main base of the Belize Defence Force.

History

The barracks has its origins in the British Honduras Garrison which had been established in British Honduras in the 1960s. In March 1972 the capacity of the garrison was doubled from facilities for 275 troops to 550 troops as a result of a threat from Guatemala.[1] A significant deployment to the barracks, then known as Airport Camp, was undertaken by the Queen's Regiment in Spring 1976.[2] Following the independence of the country as Belize in September 1981 the camp was renamed Price Barracks after George Cadle Price, a former Prime Minister of the country, and it became the main base of the Belize Defence Force.[3] The UK Government established the British Army Training and Support Unit Belize ('BATSUB') based on Price Barracks as its main international facility for jungle training in 1994 but then announced the closure of that activity in December 2010.[4] The British Army continued to use the barracks as a training base for jungle warfare but on a much reduced scale.[5]

In 2015, because of rising tensions between Belize and Guatemala since the British cut back on military bases worldwide to focus on the War On Terror in 2011, Belize asked the British Government to restore BATSUB; this happened in 2015.[6][7][8]

References

  1. ↑ "UK beefs up Honduras force". The Montreal Gazette. 22 March 1972. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Queen's Regiment". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Contacts". Belize Defence Force. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "Jungle training axed as Belize base shuts". The Telegraph. 15 December 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "Inside Belize: British Army soldiers are pushed to the limit". ITV. 7 April 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "No Joke Jimmy,The Brits Are Back". 7 News Belize. October 28, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Maybe more to Britain's Belize return than meets the eye". Cowbrough Communications. December 2, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Inside Belize: British Army soldiers put through their paces". ITV. April 7, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
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