T‐34C Turbo Mentor of the SFWSL
F/A‐18C Hornet of the
Naval Air Station Oceana is located at Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is the master jet base of the US Navy on the
east coast. NAS Oceana is one of the world's largest military air bases and is home to Strike Fighter Wing At‐
lantic with eighteen F/A‐18 Hornet and Super Hornet squadrons.
F/A‐18E Super Hornet of the
Sixteen of these are Strike Fighter Squadrons that deploy aboard US aircraft carriers. Among them are two of
the Navy's most famous squadrons. VFA‐11 "Red Rippers" is the oldest continuously active fighter squadron.
VFA‐31 "Tomcatters" is the only Navy fighter squadron that achieved aerial victories in three wars: WWII, the
Korean War and the Vietnam War. They also performed the last official flight of an F‐14 Tomcat on Septem‐
ber 22, 2006.
The other two F‐18 squadrons are permanently based at NAS Oceana. Fighter Squadron Composite 12 (VFC‐
12) "Fighting Omars" provides adversary training to East Coast wings and supports the Strike Fighter Ad‐
vanced Readiness Program, which trains operational fleet F/A‐18 squadrons. VFA‐106 "Gladiators", with
about 130 assigned Hornets and Super Hornets the largest squadron in the Navy, is the East Coast fleet re‐
placement unit. Its mission is to train new F/A‐18 pilots and weapons system officers in the basics of air‐to‐air
and air‐to‐ground missions along with day and night carrier qualification. All in all more than 130 legacy Hor‐
nets (F/A‐18A/B/C/D) and Super Hornets (F/A‐18E/F) are based at NAS Oceana. These aircraft deploy as part
of Oceana's five Carrier Air Wings (CVW) to CVN 65 USS Enterprise with CVW‐1, to CVN 75 USS Harry S. Tru‐
man with CVW‐3, to CVS 69 USS Dwight D. Eisenhower with CVW‐7, to CVN 77 George H. W. Bush with CVW‐
8 and to CVN 70 USS Carl Vinson with CVW‐17.
Other units at NAS Oceana are the Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 56 (VR‐56) "Globemaster" flying the C‐
40A, the Navy version of the Boeing 737NG and the Strike Fighter Weapons School, Atlantic operating some
Beechcraft T‐34C Turbo Mentor.
The Aviation Magazine would like to thank Kelley Stirling, PAO, NAS Oceana.