Visit to NAS Lemoore, California, January 2010

   Our visit to NAS Lemoore in California was arranged to allow us a few days touring in Arizona after our recent Edwards visit. Organised with faultless help from the Lemoore Public Affairs department to whom we are very grateful, we turned up at the main gate at Lemoore at the appointed time. After introductions we boarded a mini-bus to transport us to the flight-lines and hangars, and what a journey, the flying part of the base is literally miles away from the main gate, and I suspect that good views from outside the airfield may be reasonably restricted.

   Naval Air Station Lemoore is a massive facility, and is home to all the USNavy's West Coast fighter and attack squadrons. Currently, these units operate a mixture of older F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornets, as well as the newer F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, numbering approximately 200 aircraft in total. At any one time though, many of the based units are liable to be deployed with their Carrier Air Wing on board an aircraft carrier, or otherwise working up detached elsewhere, like El Centro for example.

   On the day of our visit the following squadrons were at home:-

VFA-2, "Bounty Hunters", F/A-18F

VFA-22, "Fighting Redcocks", F/A-18F

VFA-122, "Flying Eagles", F/A-18E/F

VFA-125, "Rough Raiders", F/A-18A/B/C/D

VFA-137, "Kestrels", F/A-18E

VFA-146, "Blue Diamonds", F/A-18C

VFA-147, "Argonauts", F/A-18E

VFA-151, "Vigilantes", F/A-18C

VFA-192, "World Famous Golden Dragons", F/A-18C, recently returned from NAS Atsugi, Japan

There was also a reduced complement from VFA-113 "Stingers" and VFA-154 "Black Knights".

    These units consisted of over 150 Hornets and Super Hornets of various marks, so, if you like Hornets then, Lemoore is the place to visit.

   We were escorted through many of the hangars with a reasonable chance of photography, then out onto the flight-lines for very good photographic access. With so many aircraft movements going on, it was often difficult to keep track of everything, 2 large parallel runways operating at the same time, many flight-lines full of activity, and extremely busy taxiways meant that you had to be pretty aware of your surroundings in order to avoid missing anything.

   Our visit here was superb, and thanks go to all the Public Affairs staff, as well as all the other US Navy members we spoke with and who helped us during the day.

Listed below are the aircraft we saw during our visit:-