Naval Air Station Sigonella Naval Air Station Sigonella , " The Hub of the Med " , is a U . S . Navy installation at NATO Base Sigonella and an Italian Air Force base ( ) in Sicily , Italy . Although a tenant of the Italian Air Force , NAS Sigonella acts as landlord to more than 40 other U . S . commands and activities . It is located west and south of the city of Catania , and some south of Mount Etna . Because of its location near the center of the Mediterranean Sea , NASSIG is well - placed to support operations by the U . S . 6th Fleet , other U . S . military units , and U . S . allies and coalition partners . It also serves as an Italian base for the Antisom ( 41st Antisubmarine Warfare Wing ) . Among the aircraft that fly from this island base are U . S . Air Force C - 130 , C - 17 and C - 5 airlifters , KC - 135 and KC - 10 tankers and U . S . Navy P - 3 Orion s , C - 2 Greyhound s C - 130s , and C - 9 B Skytrain IIs and C - 40A Clippers , and Italian Air Force Breguet Br . 1150 Atlantic s . It is one of the most frequently used stops for U . S . airlift aircraft bound from the continental United States to Southwest Asia and the Indian Ocean . NAS Sigonella has the best claim to be hub of U . S . naval air operations in the Mediterranean . The base command is landlord to more than 40 other U . S . units . Among the largest are a rotating P - 3C patrol squadron ; a Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station ; and a U . S . Naval Hospital . The hospital was built in 1992 . Previously , there was only a clinic and the closest U . S . Naval Hospital was at Naples . Sigonella is home to more than 4 , 000 troops , civilian personnel , and family members . NAS Sigonella is the Navy ' s second largest security command , second only to that located at Naval Support Activity Bahrain . NAS Sigonella also has a large support of security personnel from NR NSF Sigonella , a Navy Reserve command based out of NOSC Detroit at Selfridge ANGB , Michigan . The base comprises two sections : NAS I was the site of the original U . S . base but is now a support facility and NAS II which includes the runways , operations and most tenant commands . NAS I also contains the Navy Exchange and Commissary , the school , and some homes , mainly for the commodore of Task Force 67 , the air station commanding officer , air station executive officer and commanding officers of tenant activities . NAS I also is host to other facilities , mainly for entertainment . NAS II is now only used as a service base . History . The United States Naval Air Facility ( NAF ) , Sigonella , was established 15 June 1959 ; its first commanding officer was CAPT Walter J . Frazier . The facility was conceived in the early 1950s , when plans to base U . S . Navy P2V Neptune s at Hal Far , Malta began to outgrow the facility . When there was no room for expansion at Malta , the U . S . Navy obtained NATO backing to be hosted by Sicilians . Italy made land available under a temporary agreement signed 25 June 1957 . Six days later , Landing Ship Tank ( LST s ) began to deliver equipment from the Malta base . Ground was broken in September , and construction on the administrative area at NAF I was started in 1958 . It was built on top of an airfield where damaged fighters and bombers of the German Air Force had once landed during the Second World War . The first Americans arrived for work at Sigonella in March 1959 — six months before any buildings were ready — and so worked for six months in Catania at a large warehouse complex called Magazzino Generale ( General Warehouse ) , which is opposite the cemetery on the right side of the street as one enters Catania from the base . By the end of August 1959 , the NAF II airfield was available for daylight flights under visual flight rules ( VFR ) ; 24 flights were logged by 31 August . One of Sigonella ' s first buildings was what is now the American Forces Network ( AFN ) building . In 1958 , that building was Sigonella ' s vector ( pest ) control center , where rat poison was stored . The Army Corps of Engineers next used the building for their offices , later sharing it with Special Services , or what is now called Morale , Welfare and Recreation ( MWR ) . Around 1966 , AFN came to Sigonella and joined Special Services , which soon moved out , leaving the building to the broadcasters . Sigonella ' s first flood occurred mid - September 1959 . The Dittaino Bridge between NAF I and NAF II was under six feet of water on 20 September and all traffic had to go through Catania . Power outages accompanied the floods . In the 1980s , Naval Air Facility Sigonella was redesignated as a Naval Air Station . On the night of 10 October 1985 , there were tense hours on NAS II when the Italian Carabinieri , Italian Air Force , and the American Navy SEALs came close to firing upon one another following the interception by Navy F - 14 Tomcat fighters of an Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship , the Achille Lauro , which had been commandeered by members of the PLO on 7 October . The hijackers had killed a Jewish - American citizen Leon Klinghoffer . The F - 14s instructed the Egyptian plane to land at Sigonella where the Americans had planned to take the hijackers into custody . The Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi instead claimed the hijackers were under Italian jurisdiction . The Italian authorities therefore refused to allow the SEALs to board the plane , threatening to open fire on the Americans had they made an attempt to do so . This move was supposedly dictated both by security concerns about terrorists targeting Italy if the United States had had it their way , and by the Italian tradition of diplomacy with the Arab world . The ensuing stand - off lasted throughout the night , until President Ronald Reagan gave the orders for the Americans to stand down . In late 1985 , work crews belonging to NMCB 133 were repairing and installing sidewalks in the housing area at NAS I when they uncovered a small stockpile of Luftwaffe antiaircraft ammunition . The stockpile had apparently belonged to an antiaircraft position that had been buried during raids in the Allied invasion of 1943 . On 1 April 2004 , the Defense Logistics Agency ( DLA ) opened Defense Depot Sigonella Italy on NAS II to serve as a supply base for the Mediterranean . DLA also provides fuel and property disposal from NAS II . Sigonella suffered its second major flood mid December 2005 . Over 400 service members and family evacuated . In 2006 , a newly installed protective berm prevented a nearly second consecutive year of flooding . When NATO took military intervention to Libya in 2011 , NAS Sigonella played an important role in US Operation Odyssey Dawn because of its short distance to the country . As Libya remained unstable in 2013 , a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force – Crisis Response unit was formed and an element of this was moved to the base to be within V - 22 range of Libya . Facilities . Airport . The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level . It has two asphalt paved runways : 10R / 28L which measures and 10L / 28R measuring . Housing . Most permanent party military personnel and families are housed in " Marinai " , located 2 minutes from NAS II and approximately 10 – 15 minutes from NAS I . Marinai flooded in December 2005 displacing many families temporarily . Also in Marinai is Boy Scout Troop 53 and Cub Scout Pack 53 . Previously , " Mineo " was used as a housing base , but has since been returned to Italian Nationals and is no longer in service . Temporarily deployed unaccompanied military personnel , typically from rotational squadrons deployed from the United States , are housed in bachelor enlisted quarters and bachelor officer quarters located at NAS II . From 1987 to 2002 , there was a base housing development " Villaggio Costanzo " which was located in the village of Santa Maria La Stella , in the comune of Aci Sant ' Antonio , and approximately 60 minutes from NAS I . The closest community to the base is Motta Sant ' Anastasia , where many military personnel and their families live in rented accommodation " on the economy " . Relations between the Americans and the local Italian nationals are cordial , despite some anti - American demonstrations outside the base protesting the Iraq War . Many Italian nationals are employed as civilian workers at the base .