Rodman hosted the Southern Detachment of the Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT Detachment South), the naval component of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom). CINCLANTFLT takes the lead in Southcom naval exercises, such as UNITAS. With the closure of Rodman, naval activities in the hemisphere are now coordinated from Atlantic Fleet headquarters at Norfolk, Virginia.

Rodman also hosted the Navy Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS), which offers Spanish-language training to naval and coast guard personnel from throughout the region. The NAVSCIATTS has moved north, and now offers courses at two U.S. locations: Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base, North Carolina, and the Naval Special Warfare Command at Stennis Space Center in Gulfport, Mississippi.²

The Mobil oil company will reportedly invest $25 million to convert Rodman and the nearby Arraiján tank farm into a fuel bunkering terminal. Part of the naval station may also become a third lane of locks for the Panama Canal.

Other sites:

• Atlantic Fleet, U.S. Navy
• Mobil oil advertisement for Panama facility

Sources:

¹ United States Southern Command Headquarters, Fact Sheet: U.S. Military in Panama Now, (Panama: January 31, 1997).

Profile of the U.S. Southern Command, October 1997, United States Southern Command Headquarters, April 1998 <http://www.ussouthcom.com/southcom/graphics/profile.htm>.

Description of the Military Bases in the Interoceanic Region, Panama, Inter-Oceanic Region Authority (ARI), April 1998 <http://www.ari-panama.com/ari-ing9.htm>.

² United States Southern Command, Post-99 Theater Architecture: The Way Ahead, slideshow document, October 28, 1998.