Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, with Mt. Etna in the distance. Since being established in 1959, NAS Sigonella has grown from a single airstrip to a hub with more than 40 commands. It recently celebrated its 65th anniversary. (U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — When Paolo Graziano arrived to work at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily more than four decades ago, the base had only a handful of aircraft hangars.
Today, NAS Sigonella has grown to 1,300 acres and about 40 tenant commands, among them Space Force, Army, Marines and Air Force detachments. The military community of more than 6,000 also includes civilians, service member families and Italian workers, according to Navy figures.
NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance main operating base, including all five of its RQ-4D Phoenix remotely piloted aircraft, also calls NAS Sigonella home.
Looking back on that growth as the base celebrated its 65th anniversary earlier this month, Graziano counted several construction and engineering projects, such as one replacing an aging JP-5 jet fuel facility around 1992. That facility also included a land purchase that doubled the size of the base’s operations site, he said.
“We did a good job allowing NAS Sigonella to be open to new operations, new forces,” said Graziano, an engineer and planner for Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, whose career at the base started in 1982.
A view of Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily from a P-8 Poseidon on Nov. 12, 2022. The base, which recently celebrated its 65th anniversary, plays a part in a variety of U.S. and NATO operations. (Andy A. Anderson/U.S. Navy)
The base now comprises an administrative site called NAS I and an operations site, NAS II, about 7 miles away. It also operates a support facility at a nearby NATO pier and a separate naval radio transmitter facility, according to the installation’s website.
NAS Sigonella was established on June 15, 1959, primarily to house a P-2V Neptune patrol and anti-submarine unit that was stationed at a British air base in Malta.
Its location originally was an abandoned World War II Axis airfield that included communication tunnels, command structures and an ammunition dump that eventually were built over, the Navy said.
Construction on the base, then designated a naval air facility, began in September 1957, with its airfield ready for daylight flights in August 1959. By the end of November that year, there were 359 personnel assigned to the base. A further 234 were in deployed squadrons, according to the Navy.
When now-Capt. Aaron Shoemaker arrived at Sigonella in 2001 for a six-month deployment as a P-3 Orion pilot assigned to Patrol Squadron 26, or VP-26, the base’s current commissary and exchange had not been built. Neither had a family housing complex now near NAS II, he said.
Now the NAS Sigonella commander, Shoemaker didn’t make many observations of the base as a young pilot at the time. His focus was more on the busy operational tempo, which included missions related to conflict in Eastern Europe, he said.
Sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 and HC-4 Squadron out of Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily practice rappelling from the back of a Navy CH-53 Super Stallion in 2007. The base, which has grown to support a variety of interservice missions, recently celebrated its 65th anniversary. (Stars and Stripes)
The NAS Sigonella air terminal under construction in December 1997. The base in Sicily recently celebrated its 65th anniversary. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
Sailors and their families enjoy an afternoon at what was then a new NAS Sigonella base pool in 2005. The base in Sicily recently celebrated its 65th anniversary. (Stars and Stripes)
A pack of Ferraris zooms down a course set up along a taxiway at Naval Air Station Sigonella in November 1997. In all, 34 Ferraris were on display for a show commemorating the 50th anniversary of Ferrari in Sicily. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
Rear Adm. David Mercer is joined by Capt. Thomas Quinn and Italian air force Col. Luca Tonello in the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate 50 years of partnership between the U.S and Italy on June 12, 2009, at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. The base began operations in 1959 as a support hub for aircraft transiting through the Mediterranean Sea area. (Jonathan P. Idle/U.S. Navy)
A bird's-eye view of NAS I, one of two sites of Naval Air Station Sigonella in eastern Sicily. (U.S. Navy)
Capt. Brent Trickel, center, Italian Col. Federico Fedele and Kelly Degnan, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, escort President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to Air Force One after a visit to NAS Sigonella in May 2017. (Christopher Gord/U.S. Navy)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Nana Piccione, left, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Henry Kessler, both assigned to Patrol Squadron 9, launch a P-3C Orion maritime patrol plane at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily in 2015. (Amber Porter/U.S. Navy)
Vice Adm. Gene Black, commander of U.S. 6th Fleet, has his temperature checked upon arrival at Naval Air Station Sigonella on July 27, 2020, as part of COVID-19 safety measures. (Kegan E. Kay/U.S. Navy)
A U.S. sailor plays with a child evacuated from Afghanistan as they wait to check in after arrival at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy on Aug. 27, 2021. (Caine Storino/U.S. Navy)
An MQ-4C sits on the tarmac at NAS Sigonella, Italy, on May 20, 2024. The aircraft's arrival to the 6th Fleet area of operations marked the second forward-deployed detachment for the VUP-19 squadron. (U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet)
But he did notice that the local Sicilian community treated U.S. personnel like family, an impression reinforced during a subsequent deployment in 2010 and again when Shoemaker took charge in April 2022.
“It’s as true now as it’s ever been,” he said.
Shoemaker believes that the relationship is rooted in the shared sacrifices of the Allied invasion of Sicily, or Operation Husky, nearly 81 years ago.
“There is an understanding of what things like liberty and democracy mean in a country that was once occupied by Nazi fascism,” he said. “This continent dealt with occupation, and that is not something that the U.S. has ever had to contend with like the European theater has.”
That context, along with NAS Sigonella’s establishment some 10 years after the formation of NATO, is important in recognizing the base’s milestone anniversary, as well as the installation’s growing role within in the alliance, he said.
“There are things going on the world that want to challenge those ideals and values that NATO represents,” said Shoemaker, alluding to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Houthi threats in the Red Sea and the Israel-Hamas war. “You can’t assure those values if you aren’t in the area where conflicts are happening, or you can’t reach them.”
Sailors salute during a ceremony June 15, 2024, marking the 65th anniversary of Naval Air Station Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily. (NAS Sigonella Facebook)
