History of NAS Jacksonville

The NAS Jacksonville site was a military reservation called Black Point for more than three decades before the Navy arrived, starting with its purchase for military use in 1907.

The Navy's NAS Jacksonville history says Florida National Guard troops started arriving at Black Point in June 1909. In October 1917 the U.S. Army took over and renamed the site Camp Joseph A. Johnston, home to the second largest rifle range in the United States. In 1926 the land was turned back over to the Florida National Guard, which renamed it Camp Clifford J.R.Foster.

Flying at the Jacksonville site predates the Navy too. Base historian Ron Williamson's air show history says the first display from the station site was probably in 1918, when JN4 Jenny biplanes and Curtiss hydroaeroplanes based there with the Earl Dodge aviation training camp flew over Jacksonville to celebrate the end of World War I. The first air show held on the site came in the early 1930s, under the Florida National Guard, and its highlight was an aircraft loop that shocked the crowd.

NAS Jacksonville was commissioned on October 15, 1940, the date its first commanding officer took command.

The Navy's list of commanding officers names him as Captain Charles P. Mason and gives his tour as October 15, 1940 to May 11, 1942, and the air show history marks the station's fifth anniversary on October 15, 1945. The NAS Jacksonville history says the station was originally commissioned as a pilot training base and quickly grew into what amounts to a small town, with a hospital, restaurants, churches, boat ramps, gyms and a golf course. The first plane assigned to the station was a J2F Grumman Duck.

Command changed hands quickly in the war years. The commanding officers list shows six captains between 1940 and mid-1945, and the air show history says Vice Adm. Robert Goldthwaite was in charge of aviation training at NAS Jax from 1941 to 1943 and later served as commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville from 1962 to 1965.

The full list on the NAS Jacksonville site runs from Mason to Dexter, though it carries a few evident typing slips, such as a 1950s tour listed as starting in 1942, so individual dates are best read against the neighboring entries.

The Blue Angels were formed at NAS Jacksonville in 1946, led by a World War II fighter ace then serving with the station's Advanced Training Command.

The Navy's First Blue Angel biography identifies him as Roy M. Butch Voris and says that in 1946 the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations directed the creation of a Navy flight exhibition team, and Voris was selected as officer in charge and flight leader. He chose the Grumman F6F Hellcat, had it lightened and painted in the Navy colors blue and gold, and the team flew its first air show at the Southeastern Air Exposition at Craig Airfield, Jacksonville. That first public performance earned the team its first trophy, which now sits at the team's home in Pensacola.

The team did not stay in Jacksonville long. The air show history says Cmdr. Raleigh Dusty Rhodes, the third team leader while the Blue Angels were based at NAS Jax, led the move to NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, in October 1948, and that Rhodes designed the patch the team still uses. Voris was the special guest at the October 26 and 27, 1996 show, and on November 2, 2000 the station's air terminal was dedicated with his name. He died in 2005, the biography notes.

The Aircraft Heritage Park page says an F/A-18 Hornet in the park was dedicated on October 6, 1996 for the 50th anniversary of the Blue Angels' formation at NAS Jacksonville, with Voris's name under the canopy, and that it flew as an actual Blue Angel aircraft before reaching the end of its service life.

The NAS Jax Air Show began as a fifth anniversary open house on October 15, 1945 and now alternates years with Jacksonville Beach, according to the Navy air show history.

That first Navy show, just after World War II, was the only one at the station without the Blue Angels, because the team had not yet been formed. Shows were held regularly until 1973, then moved to NAS Cecil Field until the station's 50th anniversary in 1990; from 1990 to 1997 they alternated between NAS Jax and Cecil Field, and NAS Jax held three straight shows from 1998 to 2000. Jacksonville Beach held its first air show in 2001 and now alternates every other year with NAS Jacksonville. The history adds that NAS Jax is one of only three locations where the Blue Angels have flown shows in every type of aircraft the team has used.

The NAS Jacksonville airfield carries a name from one of those shows. On October 15, 1960, during the station's 20th anniversary, the airfield was dedicated to Adm. John Towers for his major contributions to naval aviation, with his second wife in attendance. Recent gaps came from outside events: the 2013 show was cancelled under sequestration and moved to 2014, a $51.9 million runway renovation ruled out a 2015 show for the 75th anniversary, and the runway reopened on June 27, 2016.

The 2020 and 2021 Jacksonville shows were cancelled for COVID-19 in the history's show list, though its narrative says 2019, 2020 and 2021 were all cancelled; the list shows a 2018 show and none in 2019.

When NAS Cecil Field closed on September 30, 1999, about 15,000 acres of its land were redirected to NAS Jacksonville, according to the Navy BRAC program office.

Cecil Field started as a relief valve for the Jacksonville station. The BRAC office says the Navy bought 2,600 acres in southwestern Duval County to alleviate the training burden on NAS Jacksonville and commissioned Naval Auxiliary Air Station Cecil Field in December 1941. The BRAC Commission recommended Cecil Field's closure in July 1993, and BRAC 1995 redirected 15,000 acres of noncontiguous property to NAS Jacksonville, leaving 17,864 acres for transfer to the City of Jacksonville.

Some of Cecil Field's history now sits at NAS Jax. The Aircraft Heritage Park page says an A-4 Skyhawk and an F-8 Crusader from the NAS Cecil Field collection were moved to the static display park on June 1, 2000, shortly before that station was decommissioned, and that a P-2V Neptune placed in the park on August 18, 1993 was flown by the station's patrol squadrons from December 1949 until 1971.

NAS Jacksonville is now a maritime patrol and helicopter hub with seven active P-8A and P-3C squadrons, three reserve squadrons and five helicopter squadrons, according to the NAS Jacksonville About page.

Major tenants include Commander, Navy Region Southeast, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, Naval Hospital Jacksonville, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast, Fleet Logistics Center Jacksonville and Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Eleven, with some 120-plus other tenant activities. The Navy calls the station one of the largest employers in the area and puts its economic impact in excess of $2 billion annually for Northeast Florida.

The station's past is on display near the Yorktown Avenue entrance. The NAS Jacksonville history describes an aircraft static display in Heritage Park with many restored historical aircraft, popular with visitors and families, and traces the station's aircraft from the J2F Grumman Duck to the MH-60 Romeo and P-8A Poseidon. Captain Ryan Dexter has commanded the station since August 14, 2026, according to the commanding officers list.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the NAS Jacksonville history, about, commanding officers, First Blue Angel, air show and Aircraft Heritage Park pages and the Navy BRAC office page for former NAS Cecil Field.