Naval Air Station Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola ( 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 Navy , Marine and Coast Guard aviators and Naval Flight Officer s , the advanced training base for most Naval Flight Officer s , and as the home base for the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron , the precision - flying team known as the Blue Angels . It is currently a Superfund site . The air station also hosts the Naval Education and Training Command ( NETC ) and the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute ( NAMI ) , which provides training for all naval flight surgeon s , 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 , providing undergraduate flight training for all prospective Naval Flight Officer s 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 , T - 6A Texan II and T - 39 Sabreliner aircraft . A select number of prospective U . S . Air Force Navigator / Combat Systems Officers destined for certain fighter and bomber aircraft were previously trained via TRAWING SIX , with command of VT - 10 rotating periodically to a USAF officer . 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 geographically - separated unit ( 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 Hornet s and a single USMC KC - 130F Hercules ; and the 2nd German Air Force Training Squadron 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 ( see Pensacola Light ) are all located at NAS Pensacola , as well as Barrancas National Cemetery . 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 as the garrison of the West Indies Squadron . 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 . The Navy Department awakened to the possibilities of naval aviation through the efforts of Captain 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 the entry of the United States into World War I on 6 April 1917 , 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 , seaplane s , 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 " . Station Field was created on the north side of the navy yard in 1922 . Enlarged , it was renamed Chevalier Field in 1935 for Lt . Cdr . Godfrey DeCourcelles Chevalier , a graduate of the U . S . Naval Academy in June 1910 , who was appointed a Naval Air Pilot No . 7 on 7 November 1915 and a Naval Aviator No . 7 on 7 November 1918 . With the advent of jet aviation , its 3 , 100 foot runway was too short for new aircraft entering service , and Forrest Sherman Field was opened in 1954 for most fixed - wing operations . 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 , Ellyson 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 . " Naval aviators from NAS Pensacola were called upon to train the Doolittle Raid ers at Eglin Field in 1942 in carrier take - offs in their B - 25 Mitchell bombers . Navy LT Henry Miller supervised their takeoff training and accompanied the crews to the launch . For his efforts , LT Miller is considered an honorary member of the Raider group . 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 ) . Also located on board NAS Pensacola is Naval Aviation Schools Command ( NAVAVSCOLSCOM ) . This command has the following subordinate schools : NAVAVSCOLSCOM also previously oversaw Aviation Officer Candidate School ( AOCS ) until that program ' s disestablishment and merger into Officer Candidate School ( OCS ) under Officer Training Command at NETC Newport , Rhode Island in 2007 . The Pensacola Naval Complex in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties employs more than 16 , 000 military and 7 , 400 civilian personnel . During the 2005 round of Base Realignment and Closure ( BRAC ) , it was feared that NAS Pensacola might be closed , despite its naval hub status , due to extensive damage by Hurricane Ivan in late 2004 ; nearly every building on the installation suffered heavy damage , with near total destruction of the air station ' s southeastern complex . 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 not on the BRAC list . 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 rescue swimmer school which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan . On March 3 , 2010 the commander of the base , Captain William Reavey Jr . , was relieved of command after a Navy investigation into alleged improper conduct . Reavey was replaced by Captain Christopher Plummer . United States Air Force at NAS Pensacola . NAS Pensacola is host to the 479th Flying Training Group ( 479 FTG ) of the Air Education and Training Command ( AETC ) . The 479 FTG is composed of the 451st Flying Training Squadron , 455th Flying Training Squadron and 479th Operations Support Squadron . The 479 FTG is part of the 12th Flying Training Wing at Randolph AFB , Texas , but student information and files are handled through Tyndall AFB , Florida while they train at NAS Pensacola . With the divestment of Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training ( SUNT ) and the retirement of the T - 43 Bobcat from the 12th Flying Training Wing main operation at Randolph AFB , the 479 FTG assumed responsibility for the renamed Undergraduate Combat Systems Officer Training ( UCSOT ) for all prospective USAF CSOs . The 479 FTG operates USAF T - 6 Texan II and T - 1 Jayhawk aircraft at NAS Pensacola . NAS Pensacola is also home to AETC ' s Detachment 1 , 359th Training Squadron ( 359 TRS ) . A geographically separated unit of the 359 TRS at Eglin AFB , Florida , and falls under the 82nd TRW at Sheppard AFB , Texas . This school provides enlisted technical training for all USAF Low Obersavable Aircraft Structural Maintenance , Non - Destructive Inspections ( NDI ) and Aircraft Structural Maintenance ( ASM ) students . The 359 TRS , Det 1 , graduates approximately 1100 students annually . Incidents and accidents . On 20 February 1939 , a squadron of twelve U . S . Navy aircraft , types not identified , but described as " fast combat ships " , returning to NAS Pensacola , Florida , from a routine training trip on a Monday night , found the Gulf Coast socked in by a fog described as one of the heaviest ever witnessed in the region , and eight planes were lost with two pilots killed . Three aircraft piloted by instructors , and one other plane , are diverted by radio and outrun the fogbank to land safely at Atmore and Greenville , Alabama . " Six of the Navy ' s flying students bailed out in the darkness and reached ground safely in their first parachute jumps . Their planes were wrecked beyond repair . Lt . G . F . Presser , Brazilian Navy flyer , in training at the Naval Air Station , crashed and was killed at Corry Field . His plane burned . The fog was so dense that the intense glow of the burning plane could not be seen by attendents on the field . Lt . N . M . Ostergren , U . S . Navy , was found dead at his crashed plane near McDavid the next morning . Officers said the wreckage of the eight planes - they declined to estimate their worth , but aviation circles here said the fast combat ships would cost from $ 18 , 000 to $ 20 , 000 each - was the air station ' s second heaviest loss . In 1926 a hurricane wrecked planes on the ground , hangars and other equipment for a total damage of about $ 1 , 000 , 000 . " The aircraft involved were all Boeing F4B - 4 fighters . These included : BuNos . " A9014 " , " A9040 " , " 9242 " , " 9243 " , " 9258 " , and " 9719 " .