Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command. The installation occupies about 4 miles (6.4 km) of waterfront space and 11 miles (18 km) of pier and wharf space of the Hampton Roads peninsula known as Sewell's Point. It is the world's largest naval station, with the largest concentration of U.S. Navy forces through 75 ships alongside 14 piers and with 134 aircraft and 11 aircraft hangars at the adjacently operated Chambers Field.[1] Port Services controls more than 3,100 ships' movements annually as they arrive and depart their berths.
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Base
United States
No
July 4, 1917
1917–present
Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic
Commander, Navy Warfare Development Command
Air Operations conducts over 100,000 flight operations each year, an average of 275 flights per day or one every six minutes. Over 150,000 passengers and 264,000 tons of mail and cargo depart annually on Air Mobility Command (AMC) aircraft and other AMC-chartered flights from the airfield's AMC Terminal.[2]
Incidents[edit]
On Easter (3 April) of 1988, members of the anti-nuclear group Plowshares boarded the battleship USS Iowa with visitors for a ship's tour and left their group to do symbolic damage to the ship's empty Tomahawk missile launchers, using hammers and their own blood.[9]
On March 24, 2014, a shooting at NS Norfolk resulted in the death of a sailor and a civilian. The shooting occurred around 11:20 p.m. EDT aboard USS Mahan. Security forces shot and killed the civilian who had allegedly shot the sailor aboard the vessel.[10] The base was closed for a short time after the shooting on USS Mahan.[11]
On 26 July 2022, a severe thunderstorm with winds of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) and over caused nine helicopters assigned to Naval Station Norfolk to be damaged. Damaged aircraft include the MH-60 Seahawk and MH-53E Sea Dragon, according to the Navy.[12]
In addition to the several operational units, Naval Station Norfolk is also headquarters to a number of shore activities that provided administrative and specialty support to regional operational assets, and in some cases, the entire Navy.
As of June 2021, these included: