With pilot training and combat capabilities, Comando Aéreo de Combate 4 is the Fuerza Aérea Colombiana’s primary helicopter unit. As Santiago Rivas reports, its 70-aircraft fleet makes it the largest helicopter unit in Latin America.
CACOM 4 AT MELGAR
UST 43 miles (70km) to the southwest of Colombia’s capital Bogotá, the small town of Melgar has a huge military presence. Tolemaida, among the largest Ejército Nacional de Colombia (National Army of Colombia) army stations, is very close by, as is a small but busy Fuerza Aérea Colombiana (FAC, Colombian Air Force) station housing the helicopters of Comando Aéreo de Combate 4 (CACOM 4, Air Combat Command 4).
The unit has its origins in the Base de Helicópteros established in 1954, when the FAC purchased the land for its Melgar facility. The first of its Hiller OH-12 and OH-23 helicopters (procured by the Public Works Ministry in 1952) and five Bell OH-13Ds (serialled FAC 200 to 205 and received from 1954), were subsequently located there. The FAC had begun its first helicopter training course at Palanquero in February 1954, under the direction of US pilot Theodor Leopold. The unit suffered its first helicopter accident on September 23, the incident at Tolemaida killing Lt José Arevalo.
Operations at Melgar began later in 1954, the base continuing the pilot training programme, and flying observation and liaison duties with the army as Colombia’s internal situation became turbulent. The runway was completed in November, enabling fixed-wing operations, while the second helicopter pilot training course began in January 1955.…
