MCAF Quantico

Marine Corps Air Facility Quantico (Turner Field) — "Cradle of Marine Corps Aviation" · USMC · 2022-2025

Marine aviation came to Quantico in July 1918 with two kite balloons spotting artillery over the Potomac, and in 1919 a flying field was leased and laid out to receive a squadron home from the Western Front — the Corps' first air station, and the reason this patch carries the line "Cradle of Marine Corps Aviation" above its 1919 date. The field moved to its present site in 1931, was renamed Turner Field for Colonel Thomas C. Turner, the second Director of Marine Corps Aviation killed in Haiti that same year, became MCAS Quantico on 1 December 1941, and was redesignated a Marine Corps Air Facility in November 1976. Today it exists to keep one squadron flying: HMX-1, the Nighthawks, who carry the President as Marine One and who stood up the new VH-92A Patriot in 2024. This patch was worn by a Marine on their first official tour as a Career Planner, 2022 to 2025 — the billet that sits down with Marines at the end of a contract and asks whether they'll stay.