Naval Aviation Museum

Our visit to the museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station will probably provide more than one blog post. Also, there may well be subsequent visits as it has more than one day's amount of stuff. We visited the two buildings but did not take the trolley ride to the outdoor aircraft exhibit. There was the cut-away of the PBY that I had read about and it was an excellent way to see the interior. A walk-through would have taken some agility and we probably would have learned far less. A surprise was a display on the American Volunteer Group (AVG) the "Flying Tigers." If it is Naval Aviation from day one through today, I believe it is here.

Above is a P-40 decorated in the manner of its service with the AVG flying for China before the US entered the Second World War. The pilots (conveniently) allowed to "resign" from the US service compiled a commendable war record and gain experience that would be critical very soon.

Below is the Corsair, easily identified by its "gull" wings. What is the connection? If you know your history and television, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, USMC, was a member of the AVG and later, back with the Marines, led the "Black Sheep" depicted on TV by Robert Conrad. In the show the squadron flew Corsairs. I read Boyington's book decades ago and cannot remember what actually happened but if it is on TV  it must be true.

I climb that, to go where, in THAT?

Don't worry sailor, the guys on the ground are always alert for trouble.