Naval Air Station Key West

Coordinates: 24°34′33″N 081°41′20″W / 24.57583°N 81.68889°W / 24.57583; -81.68889

NAS Key West Naval Air Station Key West
IATA: NQX[1] – ICAO: KNQX – FAA LID: NQX
Summary
Airport type		Military: Naval Air Station
Operator		United States Navy
Location		Key West, Florida
Built		December 15, 1940
Commander		CAPT Patrick Lefere [1]
Elevation AMSL		6 ft / 2 m
Website		[2]
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
7/25	10,001	3,048	PEM
3/21	7,002	2,134	PEM
13/31	7,001	2,134	PEM
Sources: FAA,[2] official site[3]

Naval Air Station Key West (IATA: NQX^[1], ICAO: KNQX, FAA LID: NQX), is a naval air station and military airport located on Boca Chica Key, four miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Key West, Florida, United States.^[2]

Naval Air Station Key West's national security mission supports operational and readiness requirements for Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Guard units, federal agencies, and allied forces. The air station is also host to several tenant commands, including the Caribbean Regional Operations Center (CARIBROC), Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111), Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106) Detachment, Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit (202) Detachment Key West, the U.S. Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School and Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South).

In addition to the main air station on Boca Chica Key, NAS Key West comprises several separate annexes in the Key West area. These additional properties include Truman Annex, Trumbo Point, Sigsbee Park Annex, Peary Court, Naval Branch Health Clinic Key West and several other properties in the Florida Keys. Most family housing, as well as the Navy Exchange, Commissary, RV park and other Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) activities are located at Sigsbee Park, a man-made island created from dredging of seaplane runways for the NAS Key West seaplane base at Trumbo Point in the 1940s. Family housing is also located at Trumbo Point and Truman Annex. Single enlisted service members are housed at Truman Annex and Boca Chica Field, while single officers are housed at Trumbo Point. Married family housing is managed by Balfour Beatty Communities, a public-private venture (PPV) partner.

Also at Trumbo Point is Navy Gateway Inns and Suites (NGIS), [phone] or [phone], formerly known as the Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) and later the Combined Bachelor Quarters (CBQ). NGIS accommodates transient government personnel. Distinguished Visitors (DV) quarters are also available for senior commissioned officers (O-6 through O-10). The CBQ is very visible from North Roosevelt Boulevard and Palm Avenue, with its "FLY NAVY" logo printed prominently on the south side of the building (it is the tallest building on the island of Key West). It is approximately a mile, or twenty-five minute walk, to Duval Street downtown.

Truman Annex is the remaining portion of the former Naval Station Key West that closed in 1974 and is still under military control. It has a beach and is the location of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF South).

Fleming Key is the site of the U.S. Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School. NAS Key West also provides a degree of support for Cudjoe Key Air Force Station, a U.S. Air Force installation located north of Key West that is home to the Cudjoe Key Tethered Aerostat Radar System^[4]

Several structures of the main base of NAS Key West can be seen on Boca Chica Key

History

The U.S. Navy's presence in Key West dates back to 1823 when a Naval Base was established to stop piracy in this area. The lower Keys were home to many wealthy shipping merchants whose fleets operated from these waters. This drew the interest of pirates such as Blackbeard and Captain William Kidd, who used the Keys as a base from which to prey on shipping lanes. The base was expanded during the Mexican-American War and the Spanish-American War. In 1898, the battleship Maine sailed from Key West to Havana, Cuba, where it sank. The sinking of the Maine resulted in the United States declaring war on Spain, and the entire U.S. Atlantic Fleet moved to Key West for the duration of the war.

During World War I (1914–1918) the base was expanded again, and in 1917, a U.S. naval submarine base was established on what is now naval air station property. Its mission during World War I was to supply oil to the U.S. fleet and to block German ships from reaching Mexican oil supplies.

The nation's southernmost Naval Base proved to be an ideal year-round training facility with rapid access to the open sea lanes and ideal flying conditions. The Navy's forces were expanded to include seaplanes, submarines and blimps. Ground was broken for construction of a small coastal air patrol station on 13 July 1917, at what is now Trumbo Point, on land leased from the Florida East Coast Railroad Company. The project involved dredging, erection of station buildings, three seaplane ramps, a dirigible hangar, a hydrogenerator plant, and temporary barracks.

On 22 September of that year, the base's log book recorded the first naval flight ever made from Key West - a Curtiss N-9 seaplane flown by U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Stanley Parker. About three months later, on 18 December, Naval Air Base Key West was commissioned and LT Parker became the first Commanding Officer.

Naval Air Base pilots flew in search of German submarines resting on the surface to recharge batteries. The aircraft was armed only with a single machine gun, but gunners were supplied with hand grenades. The slow Curtiss biplanes flew low over surfaced subs, and gunners dropped grenades into open conning towers. Naval aviation antisubmarine warfare was beginning to prove itself in combat.

On January 18, 1918, the first class of student aviators arrived for seaplane training, which launched the station's reputation as a premier training site for Naval Aviators, a reputation which continues today. The base was primarily used for antisubmarine patrol operations and as an elemental flight training station, with more than 500 aviators trained at the station during World War I.

The lessons of war are easily forgotten in peace. After World War I, the base was decommissioned and its personnel were transferred or released. Most of the buildings were destroyed or dismantled and moved to other locations. The remaining facilities were used only occasionally during 1920–1930 for seaplane training. The station remained inactive until 1939.

The seaplane base was designated as a Naval Air Station on 15 December 1940, and served as an operating and training base for fleet aircraft Squadrons. This set the stage for America's entry into World War II. Fortunately, the government retained the property, which proved to be a wise decision as the nation scrambled to re-arm in a state of emergency at the outbreak of the war.

Naval Base Key West was reopened to support Navy destroyers, submarines, patrol craft and PBY aircraft. Other satellite facilities were established to support other war efforts, including Meachum Field for lighter than air operations on Key West, and runways for land-based and carrier-based aircraft on Boca Chica.

By 1943, German submarines were operating so near Key West that they were sinking allied ships within sight of land. Submarine raids peaked in May of that year, when 49 ships were torpedoed off the coast of Florida. As the war decreased, so did the torpedo raids. In March 1945, the satellite fields were disestablished and combined into one aviation activity designated as U.S. Naval Air Station, Key West.

Aerial view of NAS Key West in the 1940s

After the war ended, NAS Key West was retained as a training facility. On 1 June 1962 the Navy AN/FPS-37 Radar site was added to the United States Air Force's Air Defense Command SAGE network feeding data to DC-09 at Gunter AFB, Alabama. The USAF 671st Radar Squadron was activated and NAS Key West was designated as NORAD ID "Z-209". During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States Army activated Nike Hercules missiles in the Homestead and Miami area and Hawk air defense missiles in and around Key West,^[5] using the radar facilities. It designated the site as AADCP site KW-18DC under the Homestead-Miami Defense Area. The Cudjoe Key site was also added to the SAGE network at that time (Z-399), being operated by contractors.

By 1964, the USAF added an AN/FPS-6A height-finder radar which was modified to an AN/FPS-90 set when a second radar was added. Routine general radar surveillance was performed by the USAF at NAS Key West until 1988, upgrading the radar to an AN/FPS-67B in 1966. In 1979 the 671st Radar Squadron was replaced by the 20th Air Defense Squadron, Operating Location Alpha Juliet (OLAJ). By 1988 the last of the two AN/FPS-90 sets was removed. Today, an ARSR-4 radar is part of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS), designated by NORAD as Southeast Air Defense Sector (SEADS) Ground Equipment Facility "J-07".^[6]

The air station was to become a focal point during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which posed the first doorstep threat to America in more than a century. Reconnaissance and operational flights were begun 22 October 1962, in support of the blockade around Cuba. During the Missile Crisis, Key West cemented its claim to the title "Gibraltar of the Gulf", coined a hundred years earlier by Commodore David Porter.

Literally built up from the swamp, all of the NAS Key West sites, including the Harry S. Truman Annex (formerly Naval Station Key West), Trumbo Point, Meacham Field, and Boca Chica, were now permanently etched in military history.

Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VX-1) was based at NAS Key West and conducted airborne antisubmarine warfare (ASW) systems evaluation out of Boca Chica, while Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron 1 (HS-1) conducted helicopter fleet replacement training out of the former seaplane base at Trumbo Point until the late 1960s/early 1970s when these squadrons relocated to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland and NAS Jacksonville, Florida, respectively.

In the 1970s, Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 33 (VAQ-33) relocated to NAS Key West from NAS Norfolk, Virginia with a mix of NC-121K, ERA-3B/TA-3B/KA-3B Skywarrior, EA-6A Intruder, EA-4F Skyhawk II, EP-3 Orion and the sole example of the EF-4B/EF-4J Phantom II aircraft. Reporting as an element of the Fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group (FEWSG), the squadron provided "Orange Air" electronic adversary services for Fleet training until its disestablishment the early 1990s. VAQ-33 was also the A-3 Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) and Fleet Readiness Aviation Maintenance Personnel (FRAMP) school, providing training for A-3 pilots, navigators, aircrewmen and maintenance personnel.

In 1973, Reconnaissance Attack Wing 1 (RECONATKWING ONE) began relocation from the closing NAS Albany, Georgia with its RA-5C Vigilante, TA-3 Skywarrior and TA-4F/J Skyhawk II aircraft. An operational/deployable Fleet unit, the wing relocated Reconnaissance Attack Squadron THREE (RVAH-3), the RA-5C Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), to NAS Key West, as well as eight other deployable Vigilante squadrons (RVAH-1, RVAH-5, RVAH-6, RVAH-7, RVAH-9, RVAH-11, RVAH-12, RVAH-13) that routinely embarked with Atlantic Fleet and Pacific Fleet carrier air wings. All squadrons were in place by 1974 and all were eventually decommissioned over a six year period that coincided with the phased retirement of the RA-5C. Following decommissioning of the last squadron, RVAH-7, Reconnaissance Attack Wing ONE stood down in early 1980.

Due to its superb flying weather, NAS Key West has hosted several permanent detachments of the fighter and strike fighter Fleet Replacement Squadrons at NAS Oceana, Virginia. These include the former Atlantic Fleet F-4 Phantom II FRS, Fighter Squadron 171
(VF-171), from the 1970s through the 1980s, and the former Atlantic Fleet F-4 Phantom II and then F-14 Tomcat FRS, VF-101, from the 1960s through 1970s in the F-4 and the 1970s through 2005 in F-14. The focus of both of these detachments revolved around the Fleet Fighter Air Readiness Program (FFARP). The Atlantic Fleet F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Fleet Replacement Squadron, Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106), also based at NAS Oceana, continues to maintain an NAS Key West detachment to this day in support of FFARP's successor, the Strike Fighter Advanced Readiness Program (SFARP).

During the 1980s and 1990s, Fighter Squadron 45 (VF-45) was also based at NAS Key West to provide air combat adversary services with A-4 Skyhawk II, F-5E/F Freedom Fighter and F-16N Fighting Falcon aircraft. Decommissioned in the late 1990s due to budget cuts, VF-45's former mission at NAS Key West is now performed by Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111), an Active-Reserve integrated Navy Reserve squadron flying the F-5N and F-5F.

In the late summer of 1994, NAS Key West also seved as a primary staging base for Operations SUPPORT DEMOCRACY and UPHOLD DEMOCRACY in Haiti. The station hosted a wide variety of military aircraft during this period, to include multiple U.S. Navy P-3C Orion aircraft, U.S. Air Force E-3A Sentry AWACS aircraft and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard's EC-130E Hercules "Commando Solo" aircraft that were engaged in the operations.

As in the past, NAS Key West continues to be frequently utilized for detachments by active and reserve U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadrons and U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard fighter and rescue squadrons for exercises, unit level and training/continuation training. The Naval Air Training Command also uses NAS Key West for pilot and Naval Flight Officer training detachments, primarily student naval aviators in the strike pipeline during initial carrier qualifications.

U.S. Navy P-3C and E-2C aircraft also routinely conduct detachment operations at NAS Key West, primarily counternarcotics (CN) reconnaissance missions in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean basin in support of both the U.S. Coast Guard and Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF - SOUTH).

On 5 October 2001, Naval Air Station Key West was downgraded and redesignated as Naval Air Facility Key West. On 1 April 2003, the air facility was upgraded and restored back to full air station status as Naval Air Station Key West.^[7]

VFC-111 F-5Ns at NAS Key West, 2007

Tenant Commands

• Fighter Composite Squadron 111 (VFC-111) Sundowners
• Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106) Gladiators, Detachment
• Joint Interagency Task Force South
• U.S. Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School (SFUWO)
• U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West
• Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations (ATMO) Detachment Key West

Facilities

NAS Key West's Boca Chica Field has three paved runways:

• Runway 7/25: 10,001 x 200 ft. (3,048 x 61 m), Surface: PEM
• Runway 3/21: 7,002 x 150 ft. (2,134 x 46 m), Surface: PEM
• Runway 13/31: 7,001 x 150 ft. (2,134 x 46 m), Surface: PEM

See also

• 13th Coast Artillery (United States)

References

	United States Navy portal
	Military of the United States portal

1. ^ ^{a b} Aviation Safety Network
2. ^ ^{a b} FAA Airport Master Record for NQX (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25
3. ^ NAS Key West (official site)
4. ^ "Naval Air Station Key West". GlobalSecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/key_west.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-10. 
5. ^ http://www.keyshistory.org/Hawk-KWMissiles.html
6. ^ Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
7. ^ "NAS Key West: Command History". Naval Air Station Key West (official site). http://www.naskw.navy.mil/index.php?id=676&secid=42. Retrieved 2006-12-10. 

External links

• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective 20 October 2011
• Resources for this U.S. military airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KNQX
  • ASN accident history for NQX
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KNQX

• VAQ-33