In his nearly 30-year military career, Capt. Colin Thompson has lived, trained, served or taught at dozens of U.S. naval bases all over the world.
“I never knew the name of the commanding officer of those bases,” said Thompson, who just wrapped up his first year as commanding officer of Naval Air Station Key West.
But it seems plenty of people know his name, both on the base and in the Key West community. Students at Sigsbee Charter School, where the enrollment is about half military kids, know Thompson, and he was among the judges of a student project at CFK Academy in December.
“I absolutely love it here,” Thompson said without a trace of rehearsed enthusiasm. “And I’m 99.9% sure that I’m retiring after this stint and staying here.”
Thompson had planned to retire before he assumed command of NASKW in May 2025. He’d been stationed in Tennessee and was comfortable there.
“I really didn’t want to move again,” he said.
But a promotion and the potential for a posting to Key West changed his mind.
“I first visited here in 2009, when I was working in Jacksonville,” he said. “I fell in love with this place and told myself if I ever get the chance to come here, I’d take it,” Thompson told the Keys Weekly.
He arrived in May 2025 and clearly fit right in with the island lifestyle. True, he’s still a straight-standing, meticulous military guy who looks the part in his desert tan flight suit. But after five minutes of conversation, one realizes Thompson isn’t a military stiff or an arrogant pilot. He laughs often and easily, including at himself — and the pair of Crocs shoes with socks that are encased in glass — a parting gift from his prior command in Tennessee. They instructed him to “break glass” if it ever got cold enough in Key West to require socks with his Crocs.
Thompson joined the Navy in 1997 right after high school in New Hampshire. One of his first jobs was teaching sailors how to operate the engine room in a nuclear submarine.
He soon earned a bachelor’s degree, went to Officer Candidate School and became an aviator, flying a P3 Orion.
He served tours in Sicily and then a two-year stint in Japan aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier.
“I was actually in port in Japan in 2011, when the tsunami hit,” Thompson said, recalling “all the water got sucked out of the harbor to the point that our ship, an aircraft carrier that draws 30-some feet, was almost on dry land. I’d say that kind of ruined my Japan experience.”
But next was Hawaii, and as it was for most servicemembers, that was a hit.
But you really, honestly, are happy here in Key West?
“I swear, every time I speak to a group or meet people, someone asks how I like Key West. I feel like a broken record and sound like a cliche, because I always say that I’ve moved 13 or 14 times in my career and have never, ever been in a town where the military is so welcomed, respected and part of the community,” said Thompson, who has a 12-year-old son named Charlie. “I mean that sincerely. I’m not just saying it. I even tell all my sailors, ‘Enjoy this, because you’ll never experience this again.’”
Sure, he was hit with questions about housing as soon as he arrived. And then there’s the city’s lease of the Outer Mole, which is ending in August, and all the political whispers surrounding it. But about a month ago, Thompson took the assistant secretary of the Navy on a tour of Sigsbee Park, where the navy demolished 166 housing units that it has yet to replace.
“Everyone acknowledges the need for housing,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of how.”
As for the Outer Mole, Thompson emphasized that no decisions have been made on how the Outer Mole Pier will be used next.
“The ending of the lease had absolutely nothing to do with any actions taken by the city,” he said. “Please print that. The Navy decided to see who else was interested, but there’s not even a definite plan to do anything with it next.”
Politics and housing pressure aside, Thompson still insists that Key West was his first choice of bases a year and a half ago, and a year as its commanding officer has done nothing to change his mind.
