Naval Air Station Norfolk Virginia Patch

The beaver on this patch is holding a set of naval aviator wings over his head like a trophy, and the scroll at his feet reads NAVES SUSTINEMUS, Latin for "we sustain the ships." That is the job Naval Air Station Norfolk did for most of the twentieth century. It kept the fleet's airplanes flying and its carriers supplied from a single runway on the Norfolk waterfront. Today the airfield is Chambers Field, part of Naval Station Norfolk. Anyone who worked the flight line there knows the sound of Greyhounds and Hawkeyes in the pattern.

Naval aviation at Norfolk started with a detachment in 1917, and the training of aircraft mechanics began there in January 1918. The detachment became NAS Hampton Roads on 27 August 1918 and was renamed NAS Norfolk on 12 July 1921. The field is named for Captain Washington Irving Chambers, the officer who ran the Navy's earliest aviation efforts. On 5 February 1999 NAS Norfolk was consolidated into Naval Station Norfolk, and the merger was fully completed in 2012. Chambers Field has been home to VAW-120 Greyhawks flying the E-2 Hawkeye, VRC-40 Rawhides with the C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery aircraft, HM-12 Sea Dragons with the MH-53E Sea Dragon, and HSC-5 Nightdippers and HSC-22 Sea Knights with the MH-60S Knighthawk.

This is a round patch, 4 inches across, with a merrowed black edge and an iron-on backing that can also be sewn on. A red ring and a silver-white band carry NAVAL AIR STATION across the top and NORFOLK and VIRGINIA across the bottom, separated by black dots. Inside, a grinning brown beaver in white trousers stands on a green shore and lifts gold naval aviator wings toward a blue sky with white clouds. Blue water and a distant green point of land stretch behind him. The NAVES SUSTINEMUS scroll lies across the grass at his feet.

NAS Norfolk was a support station in the truest sense. Its people moved the parts, mail, passengers and aircraft that kept carriers working once they cleared Hampton Roads. Logistics squadrons, helicopter squadrons and the airborne early warning community all trained or flew from this one field. The work was steady and rarely glamorous, and the fleet ran on it every day. The beaver, busy and happy to carry the load, fits the place.

Iron it onto a flight jacket or reunion vest, or frame it in a shadow box with your squadron and ship patches. It makes a good gift for a sailor who worked the line at Chambers Field or flew out of Norfolk. A cheerful patch with a serious job behind it.