Department of Defense, the U. Navy, or the U. Navy to hire him, but there was no such thing just then as naval aviation, and he was turned down. Ely would continue daring flights until his death less than a year later, on Oct. Washington Irving Chambers looked upon the beginnings of naval aviation with understandable reservations.
Not unlike today, he faced familiar challenges, from funding and aircraft acquisition to selection and training of pilots to fly them. Navy limited to one air station and two grass auxiliary fields for aviation practice in the Norfolk, Virginia, operating area, the service decided to locate four additional airfields in proximity of Naval Air Station Norfolk. Farmhouses, dependencies, country stores, and a couple of schoolhouses and other public buildings dotted the landscape.
Near Tunis — the next-to-last rail stop. The hamlet of Tunis was rebranded Oceana in The community had only one small sawmill operation and thousands of acres of farmed and forested land.
The commercial development consisted of two or three small neighborhood food stores, a restaurant, and three service stations, with a local post office located inside one of the grocery stores. The town had little economic importance other than its few stopping-off points for local residents. The five thousand sprawling acres between the Oceana community and Princess Anne County courthouse looked like the best place for a military airfield.
With low population density and plenty of elbow room, the tract made the perfect location for a military airfield. From auxiliary airfield to master jet base, Oceana would become a significant example of an air station that had a city grow around it, not the other way around. The effort to secure auxiliary airfields had been a work in progress for nearly three years when the worst that could have happened did.
On Dec. The declaration was drafted an hour after President Franklin D. With a new sense of urgency, naval personnel descended quickly on the mud flats of auxiliary landing field Oceana, hastily building a series of 19 Quonset huts to accommodate 32 officers and enlisted men. For the first year-and-ahalf of the war, Oceana remained an auxiliary landing field.
Most — not all — of these squadrons were bound for escort carriers. While Pungo drew resources away from Oceana during the war, the Navy shut it down in and sold the property to Atlantic Flight Services, because the location was perceived too remote to be practical.
One of the earliest proposals for the Oceana auxiliary landing field was put forward by Capt. Shoemaker, who recommended the Navy share the field with army fighter squadrons. The Bureau of Yards and Docks approved this expansion and, on Jan. While facilities construction had started, on Feb. This reassignment changed everything. Under this revamped expansion plan, Oceana would be able to support 64 aircraft, the equivalent of three squadrons, and enough barracks space to accommodate officers and enlisted men.
At the time this proposal was made, Oceana was only able to handle 18 airplanes. To achieve much of this expansion, it was clear that acquisition of additional farmland was the first stepping stone to a larger air station.
The Navy surveyed land around the existing. Ely was photographed in his flying gear and standing by his Curtiss pusher biplane in Note the rubber bicycle tire inner tubes worn as a life preserver in case of a forced water landing. The land, some of which continued to be farmed long after the Navy acquired it, was best suited to general farming and truck cultivation.
To the appraisers, it was clear that the absence of a marketing cooperative had cost truck farmers in the area a fair price for their produce at market.
Many of the fields were unharvested, because the anticipated price for the crop was too low. Appraisers took notice. While truck farming had waned, hog raising and fattening, a more recent use of the land just then, was showing greater profit.
The remote and largely inaccessible auxiliary landing field was commissioned Naval Auxiliary Air Station Oceana on Aug. This was just the beginning. In the decades that followed World War II, the air station and the community around it grew with naval aviation. The nascent auxiliary air station grew so fast that less than a decade after the war, the Navy built additional runways and training.
The evolution of Oceana postwar sent a clear message that it could no longer function as a subordinate to any other air station. The Secretary of the Navy redesignated Oceana a naval air station on April 1, , a move that ultimately laid the foundation for development of the master jet base. But as the Navy pondered and planned this master jet base, it was clear that Oceana did not, indeed, have enough jets.
Jets were just beginning to subsume them. The officer to the left is Lt. Lee, base executive officer. The photograph was taken in August The steel beneath did not show. Ground was broken for the relocation of the air station to the south side of the field — where it is today — on Aug. This redevelopment spelled the end of the old north station, of which only a couple of Quonset huts remain.
Even today, Oceana has the longest runways in Hampton Roads, and thus remains capable of handling emergency traffic during periods of extreme inclement weather. Dedication ceremonies were held on June 4, , naming the field after Vice Adm. Rear Adm. James S. Soucek have always been willing to make personal sacrifices. I am reminded that our naval aviation, which leads the world, is in that position largely because of the unflinching and devoted work of junior officers.
A detachment remained at Key West until the s. From July 6 to Dec. In and , the squadron was awarded the Chief of Naval Operations CNO Aviation Safety Award, and in November , the unit received its fourth safety citation due to 36 continuous months without an accident.
On Aug. The last A-6E Intruder squadron — Attack Squadron Seventy-Five VA Sunday Punchers — was disestablished in February , thus retiring the aircraft type from the fleet at the same air station at which it had been introduced 34 years earlier. VF continued to train F aircrews and maintainers. Left: Cmdr. Louis H. Strike Fighter Squadron One Hundred Thirty-One VFA Wildcats were the first to cross the taxiway in front of a large, welcoming crowd of more than family, friends and city officials.
Almost as soon as they arrived and started flying, Capt. William M. Zobel, like his predecessor Capt. Eric Benson, had been a Tomcat radar intercept officer. He was also no stranger to the noise controversy that cloaked Oceana, recalling. Led by Blue Angels commanding officer Lt. Ray Hawkins, the team had only been in existence for seven years and were flying the Grumman F9F-5 Panther shown on the flight line just below the Navy K-class blimp.
This event was the first of what would become an annual tradition in Virginia Beach, and represented the beginning of a remarkable series of aerial open house events. The first show in occurred on May 21 and was an occasion to celebrate Armed Forces Day, a holiday created only three years earlier by President Harry S. Every flight we conduct checks a block for operational readiness.
To Oberndorf and other city leaders, keeping Oceana in Virginia Beach — as a valued and irreplaceable part of the Hampton Roads community fabric — went beyond the home ownership, apartments rented, and dollars spent for everyday needs. Sessoms Jr. Absent this action, the BRAC commission proposed moving the fighters to Cecil Field, a recently deactivated naval air station located near Jacksonville, Florida.
The plan was initially met with optimism by Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, even though Cecil Field had already been converted into a joint civil-military airport used largely by the U. Coast Guard and the Florida Army National Guard, and where an associated commerce park dominated by major aerospace firms such as Northrop Grumman and Boeing performing major maintenance and overhaul work on a variety of military jet aircraft.
In October , the city of Jacksonville removed itself from the process. Shortly thereafter, on Dec. The city did not act to condemn any of the homes in the designated areas, but rather instituted a voluntary acquisition program available to willing sellers. In a November referendum, citizens of Jacksonville voted to leave the Cecil Airport and Commerce Center in civilian hands under the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, effectively halting any future plans of relocation.
This innovative program consists of zoning ordinances and economic incentives to foster the conversion of nonconforming businesses in the Accident Potential Zone One APZ-1 into con-. Aaron Spence. Spence and got full commitment. Full commitment by the schools enabled us to start aggressively planning six months [ahead of the air show] to make [it] happen. Obstruction clearances and flight easements total an additional 3, acres.
Each space shuttle abort landing site was chosen because the runway was of sufficient length to provide adequate distance for the slowing-down of a returning spacecraft. Oceana also oversees the Dam Neck Annex. FRCMA is one of seven fleet readiness centers devoted to the maintenance of naval aircraft and provides full-spectrum aircraft maintenance operations, possessing.
Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic, the command that serves as the administrative command of all East Coast Hornet and Super Hornet squadrons when not forward deployed with their respective carrier air wings, relocated to Oceana from Cecil Field in The school trains more than landing signal officers, air officers and assistant air officers each year.
Students in the course acquire hands-on, real-time training using the Landing Signal Officer Trainer LSOT , a fully functioning, full-size mock-up of an actual LSO platform, complete with detailed, computergenerated displays. Instructors have the ability to manipulate all conditions of aircraft, ship motion, and environment to maximize student LSO training.
Above: Vice Adm. John K. Paul W. Parcells, commander, Tactical Wings Atlantic, and a civilian official welcome Capt. Michael L. Bowman retired as a vice admiral. In an active-duty career spanning more than 35 years, he flew every fleet and training aircraft type, completed 13 operational deployments, and held eight command assignments; he was also a veteran of the Vietnam and Desert Storm conflicts.
The air wings are responsible for all squadrons in an air wing when on board the aircraft carrier or when preparing for an overseas deployment. Arguably, Oceana is about more than the air station and the community that occupies and now surrounds it. Michael G. What Mullen observed of the air station more than a decade ago remains true today. We know how important it is to our preparation for warfighting. We know how important it is to be good neighbors, and we will continue to be.
It makes sense, of course. What may not be as obvious is that NAS Oceana provides much more than the strike aircraft and pilots that make up an air wing. It also produces the people needed to maintain those aircraft, the people needed to keep shipboard air wing support systems running, to keep the air wing and carrier informed, and to direct tactical air wing operations.
Oceana provides and facilitates the training and training facilities required to produce all of the above. From the main base to the Dam Neck Annex, Oceana is more than a naval air station around which the resort town of Virginia Beach, Virginia, has grown and thrived.
It allows America to project power forward anywhere on the planet and to reach back to support and re-energize that power. Strike Fighter Wing here, which is the administrative control. They own the airplanes, parts, and people. I may have a jet that has a major maintenance issue and I need a replacement jet and Oceana provides that support.
ASD Oceana consists of active-duty sailors and 11 government civil servants. ASD has an inventory of more than 6, repairable line items and 10, consumable line items that are requisitioned and issued to the squadrons on a daily basis.
The parts needed typically reach an aircraft carrier via a C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery COD aircraft. Chad Vincelette boils the power-forward, reach-back idea down into administrative and tactical control.
The air wing commanders are here at Oceana. They take the squadrons and employ them tactically and operationally. You also have the. But if a carrier and its air wing are in a distant operational theater, those parts and people often begin their journey by being placed on a CA Clipper at Oceana. Truman CVN French naval aviators worked up with CVW-1 to keep current, and flew with the wing during Chesapeake As Vincelette explains, specialized support personnel are required by deployed air wings at various times.
However, when a carrier is deployed or conducting an exercise or work-up cycle in the local area, FRCMA personnel are transported to and from it via a Chambers Field-based C-2A Greyhound.
When it returns to home port, the repair work that the embarked Sea Op detachment was undertaking while the carrier was underway still needs to progress. If there is a short turnaround period for the carrier in question, FRCMA holds the material in need of repair and provides the carrier with replacement ready-for-issue material from its own stock.
Navy photo by Bo J. Navy photos used with permission, without endorsement expressed or implied. Tactical control comes from the air wings headquartered at NAS Oceana.
Atlantic Fleet carrier air wing commanders CAGs and their staffs embark with the air wing when at sea and are based at Oceana when the air wing is ashore in the United States. Whether deployed or at home, the air wing operations team exercises tactical control over the strike, C4I, electronic warfare and helicopter sea control squadrons that typically comprise an air wing.
Fleet Logistics Support Wing was established to operate Navy unique fleet-essential airlift aircraft on a worldwide basis. The only way for a pilot to attain and refresh the skills needed to do all of the above is to practice, practice, practice.
The airfield takes up about 2, acres, and an additional 8, acres in restrictive easements surround it. We still use parts of the old airfield for helicopter training, etc. There are no hangars, but we do have one main building that supports our crash crew personnel fire trucks, etc.
Modern naval aviation offers pilots a greater number of automated systems to manage weapons and even land on an aircraft carrier than ever.
It may seem counterintuitive, especially given the ever-increasing progress of instrumentation, navaids, and landing systems, but making sure a pilot can still land using nothing but visual cues is a critical operational capability.
As potential adversaries find new ways to target the fleet at sea, we must be able to launch and recover jets rapidly and efficiently without giving away our position through excessive electromagnetic emissions. We tend to see usage shift later during the summer months than in the winter. Of course, that all depends on [carrier] deployment and work-up cycles, Fleet Replacement Squadron FRS cycles, and more.
Naval aviators assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron VFA walk through the flight line to reunite with their families. All flight operations at Fentress are conducted with manned on-station crash crews. The facility also has standing agreements with civilian medevac helos, both for FCLP support and for the use of Fentress as a local landing zone for civilian medevac operations.
Fentress is the premier auxiliary landing field for the East Coast. Every regionally based squadron works up for deployment using Fentress, as well as any West Coast. Balancing the training requirements of units headed to East Coast aircraft carriers is a constant challenge, but occasionally a novel scheduling requirement pops up.
The historic. Call to learn more. Like their American counterparts, they made the short hop from Oceana down to Fentress. We also hosted some of their controllers here at Oceana to assist with any emergency or airborne issues that came up.
Different aircraft like the Super Hornet or Hawkeye are more or less difficult to land on a carrier deck. A department head with hundreds of traps may only need two or three nights at Fentress before being refreshed enough to head to the boat, while a nugget — fresh from the FRS — may spend every night at Fentress for a week or more.
We can usually get six to eight passes per period at Fentress. Fentress re-opened after a repair project to lay down a new runway and perform numerous electrical and lighting upgrades. And remember, that includes West Coast-based squadrons that deploy to the Atlantic. Far from being named for a naval hero, NALF Fentress is simply a reference to the Fentress family, who in the early s owned and worked the land on which the facility now sits.
His name is Cmdr. Martin N. Fentress, Jr. The F gives our men and women an advantage against any adversary, enabling them to execute their mission and come home safe.
Navy strengthens with each F that launches from its mighty aircraft carriers, and we are proud to support the men and women of the U. Navy in safeguarding the skies, both home and abroad. Learn more at f It is the present-day site of NAS Oceana Dam Neck Annex, which is home to a number of tenant commands that fall under the administrative control of Oceana.
Oceana boomed. It now sprawls across 5, acres. If the adjoining Dam Neck Annex is added, the complex includes 18 aircraft squadrons and about 20, sailors and their families, plus civilian workers, at any given time. And then Hollywood stole its glory. But their pedigree always was jet fighters. Fittingly, they were the last Tomcat squadron to deploy to war and the last to drop bombs in combat, too, flying from the deck of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt to blast enemy targets in Iraq in and Between and , four rounds of the federal Base Realignment and Closure shuttered bases nationwide as Congress sought to shave costs at the end of the Cold War.
But in , the BRAC panel voted to close Oceana, partly out of concerns that suburban sprawl was encroaching on the once isolated base. Federal, state and Virginia Beach officials scrambled to create development buffers around the installation, including buying land. James Mattis, the secretary of defense.
In recent years, scientific studies have predicted dire consequences from global climate change and the rise of sea levels. Storm surge particularly threatens operations in Dam Neck, including Fentress and Oceana. This story has been updated to show that Fentress is where aircraft crews practice simulated aircraft landings. Mark D. Oceana's Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Units train highly qualified maintenance technicians for the squadrons. The total Navy community, including spouses, numbers approximately 20, people.
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