Naval Air Station Fallon, located near Fallon in northern Nevada’s Churchill County, serves as the United States Navy’s premier strike warfare training base — the home of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) and the location where carrier air wings conduct their pre-deployment composite training unit exercises (COMPTUEX) integrating all strike warfare elements before carrier deployment. NAS Fallon previously hosted the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) before TOPGUN relocated to Fallon from NAS Miramar in 1996. The station provides the vast airspace and instrumented range areas required for live ordnance delivery training, air combat maneuvering, electronic warfare training, and integrated strike package coordination that prepare carrier air wings for deployment. Naval Air Station Fallon was developed as a primary naval air training facility and expanded into its current role as the Navy’s primary strike warfare training base during the Cold War era, with the station’s hangars, maintenance facilities, weapons storage areas, barracks, and administrative buildings constructed using military construction specifications incorporating asbestos-containing building materials during the Cold War and early post-Cold War construction periods. Naval aviation strike training personnel — aviators, aircrew, and aviation maintenance ratings — who passed through NAS Fallon for pre-deployment training accumulated background asbestos exposure from the asbestos-containing facility construction during their Fallon training periods.

Strike Training Facility Asbestos

NAS Fallon’s training facilities incorporated asbestos in construction:

  • Strike training hangars and maintenance facilities — the aircraft maintenance hangars and maintenance facilities at NAS Fallon used to support carrier air wing aircraft during pre-deployment strike training were constructed using military construction specifications incorporating asbestos-containing fireproofing on hangar structural steel, asbestos-containing insulation board on interior wall construction, and asbestos pipe insulation on utility systems in the hangar building construction. Aviation maintenance personnel and carrier air wing support ratings working in NAS Fallon hangars during pre-deployment training accumulated background asbestos exposure from the hangar building construction during each Fallon training period
  • NSAWC and TOPGUN facility construction — the operational facilities supporting the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center and the Navy Fighter Weapons School at NAS Fallon — briefing rooms, tactical rooms, simulator facilities, and maintenance support buildings — were constructed during the Cold War era using military construction materials incorporating asbestos-containing building products. Aviators, aircrew, and strike warfare instructors working in NSAWC and TOPGUN facilities accumulated background asbestos exposure from the facility construction during their Fallon assignments
  • Barracks and transient personnel facilities — the barracks and transient bachelor officer quarters at NAS Fallon used by carrier air wing personnel during pre-deployment training periods were constructed with asbestos-containing floor tile, ceiling materials, and pipe insulation in the residential facility construction. Carrier air wing personnel living in Fallon transient facilities during pre-deployment training accumulated background asbestos exposure from the residential facility construction during each Fallon training period

Weapons Storage and Ordnance Facility Asbestos

NAS Fallon’s ordnance facilities incorporated asbestos:

  • Weapons storage and ordnance facility construction — the ordnance storage facilities and weapons assembly areas at NAS Fallon where live ordnance used in strike training was stored and prepared were constructed with military construction specifications incorporating asbestos-containing building materials in the ordnance facility construction. Aviation Ordnancemen and weapons handling personnel working in NAS Fallon ordnance facilities accumulated background asbestos exposure from the ordnance facility construction

VA Claims for NAS Fallon Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at naval air stations. Naval aviation personnel who conducted strike warfare training at Naval Air Station Fallon and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.