“There was a fair amount of aviation activity, and the seaplane base was still operating, but the main activity of the air station seemed to be O&R,” Rogers said. By the mid-1960s, aircraft “rework” occupied a large percentage of the military and civilian workforce at NAS Norfolk. In 1967, the Overhaul and Repair plant was redesignated as the Naval Air Rework Facility (NARF). A decade later, the air rework plant encompassed 174 acres at the air station and included 175 buildings. In the 1970s and 1980s, its workers restored and repaired types including F-14 Tomcats, A-6 Intruders, and F-8 Crusaders. Another name change came in 1987, when the organization was renamed the Naval Aviation Depot (NADEP). Operational squadrons assigned to NAS Norfolk in the 1970s and 1980s included active and Reserve fixed-wing units flying Grumman E-2 Hawkeyes, C-1 Traders, and C-2 Greyhounds, and McDonnell Douglas C-9 Skytrains. Rotary-wing units operated the Sikorsky RH-53D Sea Stallion, SH-3 Sea King, and Boeing-Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight. Between June 1980 and June 1981, the station’s air terminal handled 29,832 tons of air cargo and transported 132,000 passengers. “It was really to acquire flight hours in the 1970s,” Lee Duckworth remembers. First stationed at NAS Norfolk between 1977 and 1980 as a mid-grade lieutenant, Duckworth was flying the RH-53D with HM-14. “The H-53 was a maintenance-intensive helicopter and money for flying was in short supply. We scrambled to meet our annual 100 flying hours minimum requirement. It was a challenging time. The NARF was the prime employer on base.” Duckworth would return to NAS Norfolk for three additional tours. His last came in 1992, as Commander NAS Norfolk.
Five MH-60S Seahawks from the “Sea Knights” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22 in formation over Chambers Field at Naval Station Norfolk. HSC-22 can perform vertical replenishments, search and rescue, and anti-surface warfare as part of a mobile
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class David Danals
detachment for expeditionary strike groups.
training area for NAS Norfolk during World War II to a master jet base in the late 1950s. The move siphoned off the tactical air units that had once operated from the air station for good. NAS Norfolk’s commemorative 50th Anniversary of Naval Aviation publication from 1961 nevertheless paints a vibrant picture of the air station. “In sharp contrast to the Norfolk Naval Air Station of 43 years ago, the present station spans more than 2,100 acres, contains more than 15 types of aircraft and has a population of more than 14,000 military civilian personnel. The annual payroll amounts to more than $70,000,000. In addition, U.S.N.A.S. currently operates the only major seadrome for flying boats on the Atlantic Seaboard.” Seaplane operations at the air station’s Breezy Point facility ceased in the early 1960s, closing another chapter in the base’s history as patrol squadrons that had been flying Martin P5M Marlin flying boats transitioned to the Lockheed P2V Neptune and P-3 Orion. Rogers’ lasting memory of life aboard the air station as a chief personnelman in the early 1960s was the hustle and bustle of the Overhaul and Repair facility. “O&R” had succeeded “A&R” in 1948 as the designation for the extensive overhaul and heavy maintenance facilities that had grown steadily since the air station’s inception.
85