Lemoore Naval Air Station

Lemoore Naval Air Station (NAS) is home port for the Pacific Fleet's Strike Fighter Jet Aircraft community. Currently, 10 of the Fleet's F/A-18 "hornet" fighter squadrons are located at the NAS. The base, located south of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, encompasses 29,794 acres and employs about 6,300 people. There are three basic areas at NAS Lemoore; operations, administration and housing. In the operations area are two 13,500 foot runways, aircraft hangars and parking aprons, maintenance facilities, ordnance storage, an operations building with control tower, and other structures. NAS Lemoore is a training facility for Navy fighter pilots, and often collaborates with NAS Fallon, which is a similar facility in Nevada. The helicopter-equipped Search and Rescue team based at NAS Lemoore is quite busy rescuing hikers and backpackers from the nearby Mount Whitney vicinity, and from the surrounding recreational area of the southern Sierras.