United States Forces Azores United States Forces Azores United States Forces Azores (USAFORAZ) is based at Lajes Field, Portugal near Lajes on Terceira Island in the Azores. In 1953, the U.S. Forces Azores Command was organized as subordinate Unified Command under the Command-in-Chief Atlantic. In peacetime, the U.S. Forces Commander (COMUSFORAZ) is assisted by a small joint staff responsible for contingency planning. Members of U.S. Forces Azores provide base and en route support for Department of Defense, allied nation and other aircraft transiting the installation. Air Force units that make up the 65th Air Base Group. In peacetime, a small joint staff composed of
Captaincy-General of the Azores José de Carvalho e Melo, the Marquess of Pombal, then prime minister. A Captaincy-General operated from the Palace of the Captains-General, under the direction of the titular Captain-General, who operated as the Governor of the Azores, with additional jurisdiction on every island of the Azorean archipelago. The Captaincy-General was succeeded by the Province of the Azores, an ephemeral administrative structure that was collapse in the immediate years. The settlement of the Azores coalesced in the second half of the 15th century, in a late medieval context, that translated into the establishment of a governing structure based on the signeur system.