NAS Pensacola Beach Summer Patches

Custom NAS Pensacola Beach summer commemorative patch.

Cradle of Naval Aviation. Sugar-white sand. Same Gulf Coast skies since 1914.

Naval Air Station Pensacola — the "Cradle of Naval Aviation" and the "Annapolis of the Air" — was officially established as the Navy's first permanent naval air station in January 1914 with six qualified pilots, 23 enlisted men, seven seaplanes, and canvas hangars on a site originally laid out as a U.S. Navy Yard in 1826. Captain Washington Irving Chambers and his selection board chose Pensacola for its protected body of water, year-round flying weather, and access to the Gulf — and within three years the station had set altitude records, conducted the Navy's first catapult launch from a ship, and trained 1,000 seaplane and hydroplane aviators by Armistice Day 1918. After Pearl Harbor, NAS Pensacola surged to train 2,300 students per month — a 300% increase — producing nearly 20,000 pilots by mid-1943 and more than 28,000 Naval Aviators across the war, including 2,775 British and 59 French aviators. Today NAS Pensacola is still the home of Naval Aviation Schools Command, the Blue Angels, the National Naval Aviation Museum, and Pensacola Beach summers that every Naval Aviator, NFO, and Aircrew member who came through here remembers. This summer-themed patch is a tribute to that — the white sand, the Gulf horizon, and the Cradle of Naval Aviation.

Perfect For: NAS Pensacola active-duty and veteran personnel, Naval Aviation Schools Command students, Naval Flight Officer and Aviator candidates, Blue Angels fans, National Naval Aviation Museum visitors, Pensacola Beach summer detachment alumni, and naval aviation heritage collectors.

Pensacola summers — sand, sun, and the Cradle of Naval Aviation.