NAS Whiting Field Recognized as Best Base in the Navy

The Commander in Chief's Annual Award for Installation Excellence recognizes the outstanding and innovative efforts of the people who operate and maintain U.S. military installations. The six recipients of this highly competitive presidential award were selected for their exemplary support of Department of Defense missions.
 
“Each of the winning installations has a list of accomplishments that really is very impressive that far surpass the criteria that have been set up,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment, Brendan Owens.
 
Naval Air Station Whiting Field Commanding Officer, Capt. Paul Flores credited Whiting’s robust community partnership as a major factor in the installation’s ability to execute its mission.
 
“Community-military partnering is integral to the success of NAS Whiting Field,” said Flores. “We have 12 outlying fields we manage that facilitate our mission, each one of those has their own county we liaise with and those communities as well help facilitate the mission.”
 
The award was established in 1985 as a challenge to the men and women of the Department of Defense to search for installations where defense personnel have done the best job with their resources to support the mission and seek imaginative solutions to the complex problems they face. Naval Air Station Whiting Field was nominated for the award after winning the Commander, Navy Installations Command 2024 Installation Excellence Award in the Small Base category.
 
“On behalf of the commander in chief and secretary of defense, I’d like to thank all the people who worked together to earn the award,” said Owens. “As winners of the 2024 Commander in Chief’s Award for Installation Excellence, you’ve set a high bar for other installations across the department to emulate, keep up the great work.”