Qualla: Naval Air Station Key West

Naval Air Station Key West: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. On September 22, 1917, a Coast Guard lieutenant named Stanley Parker lifted a Curtiss N-9 seaplane off the waters near Key West and entered the base logbook as the first naval aviator ever to fly from the southernmost point in the United States. Three months later, Naval Air Base Key West was officially commissioned, and Parker became its first commanding officer. What began as a crude coastal patrol station -- seaplane ramps, a dirigible hangar, and temporary barracks thrown up on land leased from the Florida East Coast Railway -- has since grown into one of the Navy's premier air-to-air combat training facilities, a place where favorable year-round flying weather and vast overwater ranges have shaped American fighter pilots for more than a century.

Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Naval Air Station Key West: Pirates, Battleships, and Biplanes

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edgar Serrano, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Navy's presence on Key West predates aviation by almost a century. In 1823, a naval base was established to suppress piracy in the Florida Keys, where wealthy shipping merchants and their fleets made tempting targets. The base expanded during the Mexican-American War with the...

Image: Edgar Serrano | CC BY-SA 3.0

Naval Air Station Key West: U-Boats Within Sight of Shore

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994, Public domain. The interwar years nearly killed the station. After 1918, buildings were dismantled or destroyed, and the facilities sat largely idle through the 1920s and 1930s. But the government held onto the property -- a decision that proved prescient when the base was redesignated Naval Ai...

Image: Department of Defense. American Forces Information Service. Defense Visual Information Center. 1994 | Public domain

Naval Air Station Key West: Cold War Frontline

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos, Public domain. Ninety miles from Cuba, NAS Key West became a Cold War flashpoint. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Army rushed Nike Hercules and MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles into the Keys. The station's radar joined the Air Force's SAGE air defense network, and for tense week...

Image: U.S. Department of Defense Current Photos | Public domain

Naval Air Station Key West: Where Every Service Comes to Train

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Public domain. NAS Key West's three runways on Boca Chica Field -- the longest stretching 10,001 feet -- support an extraordinary diversity of operations. The Key West Complex airspace extends south toward Cuba, west past the Dry Tortugas, and northwest over the Gulf of Mexico, covered by the T...

Image: National Museum of the U.S. Navy | Public domain