Officially Licensed US Navy CNATRA Naval Air Training Command Patches — Where Every Naval Aviator Earns Their Wings of Gold
Before you fly for the fleet, CNATRA has to sign off on it.
The Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) oversees the Naval Air Training Command (NATRACOM), headquartered at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas — the single command responsible for producing every naval aviator, naval flight officer, and unmanned aircraft systems operator in the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Operating across five training air wings and seventeen training squadrons spread across Naval Air Stations in Florida, Mississippi, and Texas, CNATRA runs one of the most demanding aviation training pipelines in the world. Naval aviation training traces its roots back to 1914 at Pensacola, Florida — the 'Cradle of Naval Aviation' — and has evolved from biplanes to the T-6B Texan II, T-45 Goshawk, and TH-73A that fill today's training skies. In a typical year, NATRACOM's aircraft log hundreds of thousands of flight hours — nearly a third of the entire Department of the Navy total — producing thousands of newly winged aviators, flight officers, and aircrewmen ready for fleet service. CNATRA also oversees the legendary Blue Angels, the Navy's elite flight demonstration squadron. From primary flight training through advanced strike, rotary-wing, and multi-engine pipelines, every student who earns their Wings of Gold does so under CNATRA's watch. This officially licensed CNATRA patch represents the command that builds the foundation of naval aviation, one student at a time.
