Welcome to Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Celebrating over 70 years of community partnership. 

Installation Information

Nestled in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, where the waters of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay meet, sits Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

Approximately 90 miles from the Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia, and 65 miles south of the nation’s capital, the 14,500-acre complex includes the main station in Lexington Park, Webster Outlying Field in St. Inigoes, Navy Recreation Center Solomons in Calvert County, and Bloodsworth Island Range in the Chesapeake Bay.

Since its commissioning April 1, 1943, Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River has evolved into the Center of Excellence for Naval Aviation. It’s also known as: Where the future of Naval aviation begins.

NAS Pax River was selected to host Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) headquarters, as well as 50 other tenant activities, during a round of Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC) in the mid-1990s; a move that brought more than 20,000 military and civilian employees to the air station.

With just 800 employees assigned to the host air station’s staff, the military and civilian “Pax Pros” work hard to ensure the continued security and safety of its tenants, while providing first-class services to all employees.

Be sure to browse through our pages where you can find out more about the tenants commands aboard the air station, newcomer information, recreational activities and the history or the air station, to name a few.

Commanding Officer’s Leadership Philosophy 

1. The Pax Team operates with three focus areas: Respect, Ownership, and Excellence.

                RESPECT: Treat everyone with dignity and respect. Be customer service driven and if all else fails live by the “Golden Rule.”

                OWNERSHIP: This is our Naval Air Station, it is unique in the world and its mission of maintaining and developing the future of Naval Aviation is important. Each person on the installation should take ownership of their job, their facility, and the entire installation’s appearance. You are    empowered to do your job, fix things that are wrong, and report when you need help.

                EXCELLENCE: We expect all personnel to strive for excellence. Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best possible job in everything we do – learning from our mistakes and always improving.

2. The Following EXCELLENCE PRINCIPLES will be used by all hands and be a focus of leadership at all levels. Most mission failures or mishaps can be tracked back to a breakdown into one or several of the below excellence principles. We will look at our mistakes through these principles to determine where the breakdown occurred and implement changes to reduce future risk.

                Integrity: This is the bedrock principle and most important. We must all be able to trust each other in what we say and what we do. To cultivate this type of atmosphere honest mistakes must be immediately acknowledged and not punished. If someone brings their integrity into doubt just once then all other dealings with that person will be questionable.

                Communications: Communication is the key to a successful organization, but it is hard to do well. Communications must flow up and down the chain of command horizontally throughout the organization.

                Teamwork: A cohesive team is a force multiplier. Building a team is hard work and takes constant effort. We must always strive to work together. We cannot complete our mission by ourselves; therefore, the PAX TEAM must include other organizations as well. In order to be successful, we will build strong professional relationships focused on good communication, outstanding customer service, and teamwork.

                Level of knowledge: We must understand our jobs. We work with complicated systems, multiple organizations, and a diverse group of people. In order to be successful, we must obtain and maintain a high level of knowledge. We will learn more effectively if we instill a culture of continual learning. We will take the time to train our new personnel and will find that the teachers generally learn as much as the students. Each day you should ask yourself, “Did I learn something new today? Did I teach somebody else something new today?”

                Procedural Compliance: Procedures are written in blood – injuries or loss of life and damage to equipment learned from previous mishaps. There may be times we need to make an exception; however, it must be a conscious decision and the entire chain of command must be kept in the decision loop. If you aren’t willing to tell your boss that you are making an exception to a rule – then follow the rule.

                Questioning attitude: Never be afraid to ask questions. A questioning attitude will help keep us from making mistakes. If you do not understand the “why” then ask a question. We get information from many sources; therefore, you must be sensitive to any disagreement between the information received from those different sources. Immediately and strongly resolve those disagreements – get to the truth quickly.

                Forceful Backup: Everyone must work to back up their peers, subordinates, and senior personnel. If you see a dangerous situation developing, then speak up. We may be basing decisions on a false or inaccurate piece of information. We expect you to speak up if you think we are wrong.

                Risk Management: Use operational risk management (ORM) to enable our Safety program.

Key principles of ORM include:
                - Accept risk when benefits outweigh the cost
                - Accept no unnecessary risks
                - Anticipate and manage risk by planning
                - Make risk decisions at the right level

3. We will use the above focus areas and live by the above excellence principles to continue to make our installation the center of Naval Aviation excellence.

QUICK LINKS

Water Qaulity Consumer Confidence Report 2015
For a copy of the Water Quality Consumer Confidence Report 2015, click here.

NAS Pax River Newspaper: Tester

Read the latest Tester, click here.

NAS Pax River 2015/2016 Installation Guide