NAVAL AIR STATION MERIDIAN
Where Navy and Marine strike aviators earn their wings of gold.
OVERVIEW
Naval Air Station Meridian is one of two U.S. Navy strike jet training installations — alongside Naval Air Station Kingsville in Texas — that produces newly winged Navy and Marine Corps strike aviators bound for fleet F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35C Lightning II squadrons. The base occupies about 8,000 acres in east-central Mississippi, roughly 15 miles north of the city of Meridian and just west of the Alabama state line. Its main airfield, McCain Field, is named for Admiral John S. McCain Sr., a Mississippi native and senior naval aviator of World War II.
The installation hosts Training Air Wing ONE (TW-1), with Training Squadrons VT-7 "Eagles" and VT-9 "Tigers" flying the T-45C Goshawk in the intermediate and advanced strike syllabus phases. Student naval aviators come to NAS Meridian after completing primary training at NAS Pensacola, NAS Corpus Christi, or NAS Whiting Field, and depart with their wings of gold and an assignment to a Navy or Marine Corps strike-fighter Fleet Replacement Squadron. Marine Aviation Training Support Group 21 supports Marine Corps students at the base, and Naval Technical Training Center Meridian conducts a portfolio of resident technical training and hosts the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy. Approximately 3,000 active-duty members and civilian employees support the installation, making it one of the largest employers in east-central Mississippi.
KEY FACTS
- MissionIntermediate and advanced strike jet pilot training
- AircraftT-45C Goshawk
- Field NameMcCain Field — named for Admiral John S. McCain Sr.
- WingTraining Air Wing ONE (TW-1)
- RegionEast-central Mississippi, near Alabama state line
HISTORY
Naval Air Station Meridian was commissioned on July 14, 1961, the result of a multi-year Navy effort to expand naval aviation training capacity in the southeastern United States. By the late 1950s, the Navy's established training bases at Pensacola and Corpus Christi were operating at near-saturation as the service met the manpower demands of the Cold War carrier force, and additional capacity was needed to meet projected pilot production requirements. The Navy selected the McCain Field site in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, for its temperate climate, sparse population, available land, and relatively unrestricted training airspace.
Construction proceeded through the late 1950s, and on commissioning the new installation immediately began producing student naval aviators in the T-2 Buckeye intermediate trainer. Through the 1960s and 1970s, NAS Meridian hosted both intermediate jet training in the Buckeye and advanced strike training in the TA-4J Skyhawk, becoming one of the principal sources of newly winged Navy and Marine Corps strike aviators in the Vietnam era. The base also provided the Naval Reserve and select international students with strike training under the same syllabus.
In the 1990s, the Navy began transitioning the strike training community from the aging T-2 Buckeye and TA-4J Skyhawk to the new T-45 Goshawk, a navalized variant of the BAE Systems Hawk. The transition consolidated intermediate and advanced strike training into a single airframe and dramatically modernized the Navy's pilot training pipeline. NAS Meridian completed its transition to the T-45A and later T-45C Goshawk through the 1990s and 2000s, retiring its legacy aircraft and standing up the modern Training Air Wing ONE structure. The base also hosted Naval Technical Training Center Meridian, which over the years has supported a range of enlisted technical training programs alongside the host air station's pilot training mission.
The base survived multiple Base Realignment and Closure rounds, with each review reaffirming the role of NAS Meridian alongside NAS Kingsville as a critical Navy strike jet training installation. The 2005 BRAC round directed some realignments at the Naval Technical Training Center, but kept the host air station and its strike training mission intact. Today, NAS Meridian continues to graduate hundreds of newly winged strike aviators each year and remains a foundational element of the Navy's undergraduate naval aviator training pipeline.
MAJOR COMMANDS & TENANT UNITS
- Training Air Wing ONE
- Training Squadron VT-7 "Eagles"
- Training Squadron VT-9 "Tigers"
- Marine Aviation Training Support Group 21
- Naval Technical Training Center Meridian (Regional Counterdrug Training Academy)
LOCATION & GEOGRAPHY
NOTABLE EVENTS
- 1961CommissionedCommissioned on July 14, 1961 to expand naval aviation training capacity in the Southeast.
- 1992T-45 Goshawk ArrivesTraining squadrons began transitioning from the T-2 Buckeye and TA-4J Skyhawk to the new T-45 Goshawk.
- 2008NTTC RealignmentNaval Technical Training Center Meridian realigned several functions, refocusing on resident training programs and the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy.