The airport is located 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Balboa, at the southern (Pacific) end of the Panama Canal.

In its heyday, it was the center for counter-drug operations, military and humanitarian airlift, contingencies, joint-nation exercises, and search and rescue.

It boasted fighters, cargo planes, tankers, airborne warning and control aircraft, operational support airlift "executive" jets, and search and rescue helicopters.

Personnel assigned to tenant commands at Howard AFB tracked drug traffickers from South America, and its cargo aircraft, primarily rotational Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft from the active duty U.S. Air Force, the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, provided theater airlift for United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) contingencies, exercises, and disaster relief, and conducted search and rescue in the vast region.

[3] Vought A-7 Corsair II and later General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters also rotated through Howard AFB.

Department of Defense elements began drawing down more than a year earlier, in anticipation of the deadline established by the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977.

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) formerly operated Howard Elementary School for children of American military dependents.