Naval Air Station Pensacola

This article's lead section may be too long. Please read the length guidelines and help move details into the article's body. (October 2023)

Naval Air Station Pensacola
Forrest Sherman Field
Near Pensacola, Florida in United States
F/A-18E Super Hornets of the US Navy's Blue Angels conducting a pitchup-break over their home at NAS Pensacola in January 2021
NAS Pensacola Location in Florida Show map of Florida NAS Pensacola Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Coordinates	30°21′09″N 087°19′04″W / 30.35250°N 87.31778°W / 30.35250; -87.31778
Type	Naval air station
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Navy
Controlled by	Navy Region Southeast
Condition	Operational
Website	Official website
Site history
Built	1913 (1913)
In use	1913 – present
Events	Hurricane Ivan (2004) Terrorist shooting (2019)
Garrison information
Current commander	Captain Chandra Newman
Garrison	Training Air Wing Six
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: NPA, ICAO: KNPA, FAA LID: NPA, WMO: 722225
Elevation	28 feet (8.5 m) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 07L/25R 8,001 feet (2,439 m) Asphalt 07R/25L 8,000 feet (2,400 m) Asphalt 01/19 7,136 feet (2,175 m) Asphalt
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (IATA: NPA, ICAO: KNPA, FAA LID: NPA) (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United States Navy base located next to Warrington, Florida, a community southwest of the Pensacola city limits. It is best known as the initial primary training base for all U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officers pursuing designation as naval 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 station is listed as the Pensacola Station Census Designated Place (CDP) under the 2020 census and had a resident population of 5,532. It is part of the Pensacola—Ferry Pass—Brent, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Because of contamination by heavy metals and other hazardous materials during its history, it is designated as a Superfund site needing environmental cleanup.^[2]

The air station also hosts the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) and the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute (NAMI), the latter of which provides training for all naval flight surgeons, aviation physiologists, and aerospace 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) Memphis, which relocated to Pensacola and was renamed NATTC Pensacola. NATTC provides 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. The NATTC facility at NAS Pensacola is also home to the USAF Detachment 1, a geographically separated unit (GSU) whose home unit is the 359th Training Squadron located at nearby Eglin AFB. Detachment 1 trains over 1,100 airmen annually in three structural maintenance disciplines: low observable, non-destructive inspection, and aircraft structural maintenance.

NAS Pensacola contains Forrest Sherman Field, home of Training Air Wing SIX (TRAWING 6), providing undergraduate flight training for all prospective naval flight officers for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, and flight officers/navigators for other NATO/Allied/Coalition partners. TRAWING SIX consists of the Training Squadron 4 (VT-4) "Warbucks", Training Squadron 10 (VT-10) "Wildcats" and Training Squadron 86 (VT-86) "Sabrehawks," flying the T-45C Goshawk and T-6A Texan II.

A select number of prospective U.S. Air Force navigator/combat systems officers, destined for certain fighter/bomber or heavy aircraft, were previously trained via TRAWING SIX, under VT-4 or VT-10, with command of VT-10 rotating periodically to a USAF officer. This previous track for USAF navigators was termed Joint Undergraduate Navigator Training (JUNT). Today, all USAF Undergraduate CSO Training (UCSOT) for all USAF aircraft is consolidated at NAS Pensacola as a strictly USAF organization and operation under the 479th Flying Training Group (479 FTG), an Air Education and Training Command (AETC) unit. The 479 FTG is a tenant activity at NAS Pensacola and a GSU of the 12th Flying Training Wing (12 FTW) at Randolph AFB, Texas. The 479 FTG operates USAF T-6A Texan II and T-1A Jayhawk aircraft.

Other tenant activities include the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flying F/A-18 Super Hornets and a single USMC C-130T Hercules; and the 2nd German Air Force Training Squadron USA (German: 2. Deutsche Luftwaffenausbildungsstaffel USA – abbreviated "2. DtLwAusbStff"). A total of 131 aircraft operate out of Sherman Field, generating 110,000 flight operations each year.

The National Naval Aviation Museum (formerly known as the National Museum of Naval Aviation), the Pensacola Naval Air Station Historic District, the National Park Service-administered Fort Barrancas and its associated Advance Redoubt, and the Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum are all located at NAS Pensacola, as is the Barrancas National Cemetery.