Everything about Pensacola Naval Air Station totally explained
Naval Air Station Pensacola or
NAS Pensacola, "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a
United States Navy base located in
Warrington,
Florida, a community southwest of the
Pensacola city limits. It is best known as the primary training base for all
Navy and
Marine aviators and
Naval Flight Officers, the advanced training base for most
Naval Flight Officers, and as the home base for the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the precision-flying team known as the
Blue Angels.
The air station also hosts the Naval Air and Operational Medical Institute (NAOMI), which provides training for all naval
flight surgeons, aviation physiologists, aviation experimental psychologists. With the closure of
Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington, Tennessee and the transition of that facility to Naval Support Activity Mid-South, NAS Pensacola also became home to the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), providing technical training schools for nearly all enlisted aircraft maintenance and enlisted aircrew specialties in the
U.S. Navy,
U.S. Marine Corps and
U.S. Coast Guard.
NAS Pensacola contains
Forrest Sherman Field, home of Training Air Wing SIX which includes the
Training Squadron 4 Warbucks,
Training Squadron 10 Wildcats and
Training Squadron 86 Sabrehawks squadrons (flying
T-2 Buckeye,
T-6A Texan II,
T-39 Sabreliner and
T-1A Jayhawk aircraft), the
Blue Angels Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron (flying
F/A-18 Hornets and a single USMC
KC-130F), the 2nd German Air Force Training Squadron USA (
German: 2. Deutsche Luftwaffenausbildungsstaffel USA – abbreviated “2. DtLwAusbStff”), whose ancestors established there in
1913 and the NAS Pensacola Search and Rescue detachment (flying
UH-3H Sea King helicopters). A total of 131 aircraft operate out of Sherman Field generating 110,000 flight operations each year.
The
National Museum of Naval Aviation, the
Pensacola Naval Air Station Historic District, and historic
Fort Barrancas and its associated Advance Redoubt are all located at NAS Pensacola.
History
The site now occupied by NAS Pensacola has a colorful background dating back to the
16th century when
Spanish explorer Don
Tristan de Luna founded a colony on the bluff where
Fort Barrancas is now situated.
Navy Yard
Realizing the advantages of the Pensacola harbor and the large timber reserves nearby for shipbuilding, in
1825 President John Quincy Adams and
Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard made arrangements to build a Navy yard on the southern tip of
Escambia County, where the air station is today. Navy Captains
William Bainbridge,
Lewis Warrington, and
James Biddle selected the site on
Pensacola Bay.
Construction began in April
1826, and the Pensacola Navy Yard, also known as the Warrington Navy Yard became one of the best equipped naval stations in the country. In its early years the base dealt mainly with the suppression of
slave trade and
piracy in the
Gulf and
Caribbean.
On January 12, 1861, just prior to the commencement of the
Civil War, the Warrington Navy Yard surrendered to
secessionists. When
Union forces captured
New Orleans in
1862,
Confederate troops, fearing attack from the west, retreated from the Navy Yard and reduced most of the facilities to rubble.
After the war, the ruins at the yard were cleared away and work was begun to rebuild the base. Many of the present structures on the air station were built during this period, including the stately two- and three-story houses on North Avenue. In
1906, many of these newly rebuilt structures were destroyed by a great
hurricane and
tidal wave.
Naval Aeronautical Station
Meanwhile, great strides were being made in aviation. The
Wright Brothers and especially
Glenn Curtiss were trying to prove to the Navy that the aircraft had a place in the fleet. The first
aircraft carrier was built in January
1911, and a few weeks later, the
seaplane made its first appearance. Then, civilian pilot
Eugene Ely landed a frail craft aboard
USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4) in
San Francisco Bay, and the value of the aircraft to the Navy had been demonstrated.
The Navy Dept., now awakened to the possibilities of Naval Aviation through the efforts of Capt.
Washington Irving Chambers, prevailed upon Congress to include in the Naval Appropriation Act enacted in
1911–
12 a provision for aeronautical development. Chambers was ordered to devote all of his time to naval aviation.
In October
1913,
Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, appointed a board, with CAPT Chambers as chairman, to make a survey of aeronautical needs and to establish a policy to guide future development. One of the board's most important recommendations was the establishment of an aviation training station in Pensacola.
Upon entry into
World War I, Pensacola, still the only naval air station, had 38
naval aviators, 163
enlisted men trained in aviation support, and 54
fixed-wing aircraft. Two years later, by the signing of the
armistice in November
1918, the air station, with 438
officers and 5,538 enlisted men, had trained 1,000 naval aviators. At war's end,
seaplanes,
dirigibles, and free kite
balloons were housed in
steel and wooden
hangars stretching a mile down the air station
beach.
In the years following World War I, aviation training slowed down. From the 12-month flight course, an average of 100 pilots were graduating annually. This was before the day of aviation cadets; officers were accepted for the flight training program only after at least two years of sea duty. The majority were
Annapolis graduates, although a few reserve officers and enlisted men also graduated. Thus, Naval Air Station Pensacola became known as the "Annapolis of the Air".
Naval Air Station
With the inauguration in
1935 of the cadet training program, activity at Pensacola again expanded. When Pensacola's training facilities could no longer accommodate the ever increasing number of cadets accepted by the Navy, two more naval air stations were created—one in
Jacksonville, Florida, and the other in
Corpus Christi, Texas. In August
1940, a larger auxiliary base,
Saufley Field, named for LT
R.C. Saufley, Naval Aviator 14, was added to Pensacola's activities. In October
1941, a third field, named after CDR Theodore G. “Spuds” Ellyson, the Navy’s first aviator, was added.
As the nations of the world moved toward
World War II, NAS Pensacola once again became the hub of air training activities. NAS Pensacola expanded again, training 1,100 cadets a month, 11 times the amount trained annually in the
1920s. The growth of NAS Pensacola from 10 tents to the world's greatest naval aviation center was emphasized by then-
Senator Owen Brewster's statement: "The growth of naval aviation during World War II is one of the wonders of the modern world."
The
Korean War presented problems as the military was caught in the midst of transition from
propellers to
jets, and the air station revised its courses and training techniques. Nonetheless, NAS Pensacola produced 6,000 aviators from
1950 to
1953.
Forrest Sherman Field was opened in
1954 on the western side of NAS Pensacola. This jet airfield was named after the late
Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, a former Chief of Naval Operations. Shortly thereafter the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the
Blue Angels, relocated from
NAS Corpus Christi, Texas.
Pilot training requirements shifted upward to meet the demands for the
Vietnam War which occupied much of the
1960s and
1970s. Pilot production was as high as 2,552 (
1968) and as low as 1,413 (
1962).
Modern History
In
1971, NAS Pensacola was picked as the headquarters site for CNET (Chief of Naval Education and Training), a new command which combined direction and control of all Navy education and training activities and organizations. The Naval Air Basic Training Command was absorbed by the Naval Air Training Command, which moved to
NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. In
2003, CNET was replaced by the
Naval Education and Training Command
(NETC).
(External Link)
Also located on board NAS Pensacola, is Naval Aviation Schools Command. This command has the following subordinate schools:
- Aviation Enlisted Aircrew Training School (AEATS)
- Aviation Training School
- Crew Resource Management
- U.S. Navy and Marine Corps School of Aviation Safety
As of 2005, Pensacola is commanded by Captain
Peter Frano. The Pensacola Naval Complex in
Escambia and
Santa Rosa counties employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel.
In the round of
2005 base closings, it was feared that NAS Pensacola would be closed, despite its naval hub status, due to the extensive damage done by
Hurricane Ivan; nearly every building on the installation suffered heavy damage. The main barracks,
Chevalier Hall, only opened in late
January 2005, four months after the storm. When the list was released on
13 May 2005, it was revealed that NAS Pensacola, as well as the other bases hit by Ivan in
Northwest Florida, were off the chopping block.
In
May 2006, Navy construction crews unearthed a
Spanish ship from underneath the Pensacola Naval Air Station, possibly dating back to the mid-
16th Century. It was discovered during the rebuilding of the base's swim rescue school which was destroyed by
Hurricane Ivan.
(External Link)Further Information
Get more info on 'Pensacola Naval Air Station'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://naval_air_station_pensacola.totallyexplained.com">Naval Air Station Pensacola Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
