Naval Air Station Oceana
If your group is lucky enough to be visiting Virginia Beach during a Naval Station airshow, we HIGHLY suggest you stop by the Naval Air Station Oceana to watch!
If you would like to visit the base, consider attending the annual NAS Oceana Air Show, held in September. For more information, visit the NAS Oceana Air Show Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OceanaAirShow/).
The Naval Air Station Oceana, or NAS Oceana for short, is the U.S. Navy Naval Air Station of Virginia Beach. This station is under the jurisdiction of the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and is the headquarters of the Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic and Carrier Air Wings 1, 3, 7, and 8. The military airport was first built in 1943 and is now home to over 300 aircraft on the operating airfield.
Since it is a constantly operating official U.S. airfield your group will not be able to tour the facility per se, but you have a couple of options to learn more about naval history nonetheless;
- Attend an airshow when happening (see link above), these events fun, memorable, and full of various food and vendors. The big annual show is typically scheduled sometime in September each year. The show will feature such things as performances by a variety of military aircraft such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet Rhino Demo Team and Air Force F-22 Raptor Demo Team.
- Visit the nearby POW/MIA Flame of Hope Memorial Park on Oceana Boulevard. This consists of a large memorial surrounded by lush parkland that honors POWs and MIAs of the Vietnam War. The memorial was conceived in 1972 to bring awareness to the thousands lost and missing during the war, with the intention of keeping the flame lit until all return home.
