Ernest Harmon Air Force Base
former Air Force base in Canada
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The base was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United Kingdom.
From its establishment in 1941 until March 31, 1949, the base was located in the Dominion of Newfoundland. On March 31, 1949, the Dominion of Newfoundland was admitted to Canadian Confederation and became the 10th province of Canada. The agreement enabling the base's existence, from 1941 until closure in 1966, enabled it to function as a de facto enclave of United States territory within, first the Dominion of Newfoundland and later Canada, making United States military personnel stationed at the base subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
March 3, 1960, while returning home from his army stint, Elvis Presley landed on Ernest Harmon Air Force Base for a refueling en route from Frankfurt, Germany and Glasgow Prestwick Airport, Prestwick, Scotland to McGuire Airforce Base in Fort Dix, New Jersey, US.
Apart from 2 concerts in 1957, Elvis never returned to Canada during his lifetime.
Following its closure in 1966, the base property was relinquished by the Government of the United States to the Government of Canada, under the terms of the original deal. The Government of Canada subsequently transferred the base property to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, which established the Harmon Corporation to oversee the disposition and use of the base property and facilities.
The airfield is now operated as Stephenville International Airport while many of the base's support buildings and housing have been incorporated into the town of Stephenville.
Construction and operation
During 1940, Germany was threatening the majority of Europe, as well as North America, through its successful air, land and sea campaigns.
The public source identifies “Ernest Harmon Air Force Base” as former Air Force base in Canada. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ernest, Harmon and Force.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5393217. VIAF identifies the subject as 1505159279137108160001. The Library of Congress control number is no2020071775. Authority coordinates are 48.544, -58.553. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1949, 1966 and 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ernest Harmon Air Force Base” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.