Official HT-8 Eightballers Summer Patches — Helicopter Training Squadron 8 NAS Whiting Field TH-57 Sea Ranger / TH-73A Thrasher Embroidered Patch
The best helicopter pilots in the world are trained here — HT-8 Eightballers, Whiting Field.
Helicopter Training Squadron 8 (HT-8), the "Eightballers," is a US Navy advanced rotary-wing training squadron based at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, near Milton, Florida, operating under Training Air Wing FIVE (CTW-5) and the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA). HT-8 is the United States Navy's oldest helicopter training squadron and the oldest helicopter squadron in continuous Naval service — established on December 3, 1950 as Helicopter Training Unit ONE (HTU-1) at NAS Ellyson Field near Pensacola, Florida, redesignated Helicopter Training Group ONE in March 1957, and formally redesignated Helicopter Training Squadron EIGHT on July 1, 1960. In December 1973 HT-8 moved to its present location at NAS Whiting Field, where it was split to form sister squadron HT-18. In 1962 HT-8 designated its first student simultaneously as both a Naval Aviator and helicopter pilot — a milestone shift from training only previously designated fixed-wing aviators. Across more than seven decades the squadron has flown the Piasecki HUP Retriever, Sikorsky HO3S-1 Horse, Bell HTL Sioux, HSS-1 Seabat, UH-34J Seahorse, and the Bell TH-57 Sea Ranger (TH-57A from 1968, TH-57B starting January 1986, and TH-57C). In July 2021 HT-8 took delivery of its first Leonardo TH-73A Thrasher — derived from the commercial AW119Kx Koala — as part of the Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS) modernization. HT-8 trains US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Coast Guard, and partner-nation student naval aviators in the rotary-wing pipeline.
Perfect For: HT-8 Eightballers instructor pilots and student naval aviators, NAS Whiting Field residents and Milton/Pensacola naval aviation community, Training Air Wing FIVE (CTW-5) personnel, CNATRA staff, TH-57 Sea Ranger and TH-73A Thrasher pilots and maintainers, US Navy / USMC / USCG rotary-wing pipeline alumni, and partner-nation student aviators trained at Whiting Field.
Eightballers — the oldest helicopter squadron in Naval service, 1950.
