![From left are Naval Air Station Whiting Field Captain Paul Bowdich, Milton Rotary President Laura Keith King and Milton Rotary member Robin Vickers. [CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-7a05a120-03a7-5ef6-e053-0100007f5e7c-fe6da803.jpeg)
MILTON — Captain Paul Bowdich the Commanding Officer of NAS Whiting Field recently joined a Milton Rotary Club meeting. Bowdich spoke of all the great things happening at Whiting Field, club representative Tracy Allen said in an email.
The base was awarded the Excellence Award for small installations in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Their mission is to produce the military's best trained "Aviation Warfighter." Whiting Field has three separate, fully operational airfields and their footprint covers two states and five counties.
Whiting is the busiest naval air station in the world with over 1.1 million flight operations last year with over 131, 970 flight hours in 2017. The base has an economic impact in Santa Rosa County of $1.43 billion. Bowdich also talked about the great relationships between the local community and Whiting Field, Allen said, with their sailors totaling over 17,000 volunteer hours in the local community.
"We appreciated the presentation," Allen said, "and are very thankful for NAS Whiting Field."
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Whiting Field captain speaks at Milton Rotary Club