U.S. Navy’s only West coast Master Jet Base


Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, along with its associated squadrons, is home ported here. NAS Lemoore hosts five Carrier Air Wings of which one is forward deployed to NAF Atsugi, Japan. The Lemoore figures are impressive. There are about 175 (Super) Hornets permanently based at NAS Lemoore, divided over 16 F/A-18 squadrons. Four other squadrons are based at NAF Atsugi. With over 200.000 aircraft operations annually NAS Lemoore is the busiest airfield in the US Navy.

F/A-18 operations
NAS Lemoore is located 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Entering NAS Lemoore over Reeves Blvd. drives you right in the heart of U.S. Navy’s Hornet action. All the main ramps, sun sheds, hangars and squadron buildings are on both sides of this road that cuts across base. There is a separate runway at each side of the road. In a way it looks like a giant harbor complex with only aircraft instead of ships.

VFA-151
Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One ‘Vigilantes’ is one of the eighteen F/A-18 squadrons at Lemoore. . The squadron is located on the left side at the very end of Reeves Blvd.

An article about the VFA-151 was published in the August 2014 issue of Pacific Wings, and a Dutch version was published in the March 2015 issue of Full Stop Magazine.