He may well be the most important person in St. Mary’s County that most people have never heard of. Vice Admiral David Architzel is commander of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). The command is headquartered in that large office that was built when NAVAIR, formerly known as the Bureau of Naval Weapons, was moved from Crystal City, Virginia in the 1980’s. The command has military and civilian personnel stationed at eight locations across the continental United States and one site overseas.
According to Naval Air Systems website: “NAVAIR’s mission is to provide full life-cycle support of naval aviation aircraft, weapons and systems operated by Sailors and Marines. This support includes research, design, development, and systems engineering; acquisition; test and evaluation; training facilities and equipment; repair and modification; and in-service engineering and logistics support.”
Vice Admiral Architzel is in charge of all of that, and much of that is central to the mission of the people who work at Pax River and at the contractors who support Pax River. Even though the commander of Pax River NAS is typically more visible in the community, and is known as the mayor of the base, the NAVAIR commander has influence that spreads throughout the very fabric of the base.
Architzel’s one year anniversary as NAVAIR commander was spent with the Patuxent Partnership as guest speaker at their annual meeting Thursday at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
The vice admiral noted that his experience with Pax River goes all the way back to 1978 when he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.to learn more about the problems being experienced by the F3A that he was flying. He and his wife couldn’t find Navy housing so then lived in community in Town Creek.
Architzel began and ended his talk with a pitch for the importance of education, and particularly STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), to NAVAIR’s mission. “I’m a STEM kind of guy,” he said, and praised the job being done by the local school system in training future employees at Pax River.
He noted that the Navy has produced profound change to the community, moving from 10,000 workers when he first came to Pax in the 70’s to 25,000 now. “People move to Maryland because of the school system. It draws people here,” he said.
Architzel has joined the latest class of Leadership Maryland to more immerse himself in the community. “You have a powerful group of people who work on the base and in the community,” he said.
During his talk he worked his way through the history of Naval Aviation, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its start this month and will be the subject of celebrations throughout the year on base and out in the community.
“We are poised to move into the next century (of Naval Aviation) he said,” as he also listed some of the new aircraft over which he has responsibility, including
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