Naval Air Station Miramar Home of the Pacific Fleet Fighters Patch

The Navy Fighter Weapons School that everyone calls TOPGUN was set up at Miramar in 1969 as part of VF-121, and that is how a stretch of mesa north of San Diego came to be called Fightertown USA. The name Miramar, view of the sea, came from the ranch newspaper publisher Edward Scripps built on the site. The Army trained there as Camp Kearny in World War I. After the Marines left for El Toro in 1947 it became a Navy auxiliary field, and it was designated Naval Air Station Miramar in 1952. It became a Navy Master Jet Station in the 1950s, and in 1955 the airfield was named Mitscher Field for Admiral Marc Mitscher of Task Force 58.

Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons flew out of Miramar for more than 40 years. F-8 Crusaders trained with VF-124, the outfit known as Crusader College, and F-4 Phantom II squadrons flew from the same field. The F-14 Tomcat arrived in October 1972, and VF-1 and VF-2 trained at Miramar before their first deployment in 1974. E-2 Hawkeye squadrons shared the field. TOPGUN moved to NAS Fallon, Nevada, in 1996 and became part of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, and the 1993 base realignment sent Miramar to the Marine Corps, which took command of the station in 1997.

The patch is a triangle 5 inches wide and 4.85 inches tall, with a cut edge and an iron-on backing. A red border runs inside the black outline around a white field. At the top a pair of gold wings with eagle heads rise over a single gold star and a gray cloud. Below them a gold rope ring reads NAVAL AIR STATION over a blue and gold globe and MIRAMAR at the bottom, with gold aviator wings, anchor and shield spread across the middle. A blue banner across the base reads HOME OF THE PACIFIC FLEET FIGHTERS.

For a fighter squadron sailor in the 1970s and 1980s, Miramar was the center of the world. Maintainers turned Phantoms and Tomcats on the same flight line that Crusaders had used. RIOs, pilots and plane captains all came through the fleet replacement squadrons here before they ever saw a carrier deck. The base kept the Fightertown name long after the movie made it famous. The Navy fighter years are what this patch remembers.

Frame it with your VF squadron and air wing patches, or put it on the jacket you wear to a Tomcat reunion. It also makes a good gift for a father or grandfather who turned wrenches at Miramar. This was home of the Pacific Fleet fighters.