The National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola Naval Air Station. It's free!
Visitors can watch the Blue Angels practice right overhead most weekdays. Do it!
While Willie and Paul were looking for their old squadron buddies, I was looking for the bar. (Just kidding.)
Girl Marine on the left. Oooh-rah!
The invocation. There was quite a crowd. The Pensacola newspaper and at least one local TV station sent reporters. The Marine Corps also had its own camera crew. Maybe I can enlist and get a job.
The Blue Angels flew above the crowd. Pretty cool, huh?
Once boys, now men: Willie Creager (wing-wiper), David Vest (pilot), Bill Bauer (pilot) and Paul (Commandant of the Marine Corps).
Willie and his great wife Gail.
Paul and I stand in front of an F-8 Crusader, the kind of jet-fighter that VMF 451 serviced way back when. Paul spent four years as an F-8 mechanic.
The VMF patch used to say "Vini Vidi Vici". Discover the scandalous reason why that was changed (read text below).
The new kid on the block: The F-35.
Vintage 451: An F-8 over an aircraft carrier somewhere.
A VMF 451 crew around the time that Paul and Willie were in.
Harold Bauer, Bill Bauer's father, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
NAS Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels and it's where all Navy and Marine Corps aviators are trained.
The reactivation ceremony took place on April 1st at the National Museum of Naval Aviation History at the base. We fully expected the ceremony to be frankly not much at all. Just a few old farts getting together and reminiscing about things the younger generation could give a rat's butt about. But, in fact, we discovered quite the opposite.
About 400 people attended and it was held in what is called the Blue Angels Atrium with retired Blue Angels jets mounted on the ceiling in static display with the ceremony taking place right below them.
Generals, admirals, young and old Marines, gathered for the event with the keynote speaker, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos. "451" had been deactivated after the first gulf war and now was being brought back to life as the Marine Corps training squadron for the new F-35 fighter.
VMF 451 had quite an exemplary past. It came into being in 1944, flying through the remainder of the war, then through the Korean War, Vietnam and later flew almost 800 combat missions over Iraq during the first gulf war.
There have been many incarnations of the squadron since its inception. Paul's four-year tour was in the 1960s with the old F-8 Crusader when the squadron patch originally read "vini-vidi-vici"--"we came, we saw, we conquered". But the joke always was "here come the guys with the 'VD'" so for obvious reasons, the "vidi" was taken out. The Assistant Commandant never mentioned that as part of the squadron's history.
I will say that as the daughter of a World War Two Marine who became a drill instructor and went on to fight in Korea, I found the ceremony very moving and interesting. I wish my dad could have been here to share the experience but he probably would have invoked his old contention that those aviation marines are just a "bunch of Airedales" (as in wimpy dogs). There's was always a spirited competition between infantry and aviation Marines.
I guess for Paul and many of the other attendees, this really is the last oooh-rah. His long-time (almost fifty years now) Marine buddy Willie Creager and his wife Gail were there. And the only other recognizable face in the crowd was a gentleman named Bill Bauer, who Paul remembered as a 24-year-old pilot in the early '60s.
Girl Marine on the left. Oooh-rah!
The invocation. There was quite a crowd. The Pensacola newspaper and at least one local TV station sent reporters. The Marine Corps also had its own camera crew. Maybe I can enlist and get a job.
The Blue Angels flew above the crowd. Pretty cool, huh?
Once boys, now men: Willie Creager (wing-wiper), David Vest (pilot), Bill Bauer (pilot) and Paul (Commandant of the Marine Corps).
Willie and his great wife Gail.
Paul and I stand in front of an F-8 Crusader, the kind of jet-fighter that VMF 451 serviced way back when. Paul spent four years as an F-8 mechanic.
The VMF patch used to say "Vini Vidi Vici". Discover the scandalous reason why that was changed (read text below).
The new kid on the block: The F-35.
Vintage 451: An F-8 over an aircraft carrier somewhere.
A VMF 451 crew around the time that Paul and Willie were in.
Harold Bauer, Bill Bauer's father, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
***********************************************************************************
The real reason for this current cross-country trip, aside from assuaging our insatiable wanderlust and visiting WalMarts we have not seen before, was to attend the reactivation ceremony of Paul's old fighter squadron, VMF AW* 451, at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.
*VMF: "V" signifies "heavier than air" (these designations were given back when the military had blimps which were designated "LTA"--"lighter than air") "M" is for "Marine", "F" is "fighter", "AW" is "all weather")
The real reason for this current cross-country trip, aside from assuaging our insatiable wanderlust and visiting WalMarts we have not seen before, was to attend the reactivation ceremony of Paul's old fighter squadron, VMF AW* 451, at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.
*VMF: "V" signifies "heavier than air" (these designations were given back when the military had blimps which were designated "LTA"--"lighter than air") "M" is for "Marine", "F" is "fighter", "AW" is "all weather")
NAS Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels and it's where all Navy and Marine Corps aviators are trained.
The reactivation ceremony took place on April 1st at the National Museum of Naval Aviation History at the base. We fully expected the ceremony to be frankly not much at all. Just a few old farts getting together and reminiscing about things the younger generation could give a rat's butt about. But, in fact, we discovered quite the opposite.
About 400 people attended and it was held in what is called the Blue Angels Atrium with retired Blue Angels jets mounted on the ceiling in static display with the ceremony taking place right below them.
Generals, admirals, young and old Marines, gathered for the event with the keynote speaker, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos. "451" had been deactivated after the first gulf war and now was being brought back to life as the Marine Corps training squadron for the new F-35 fighter.
VMF 451 had quite an exemplary past. It came into being in 1944, flying through the remainder of the war, then through the Korean War, Vietnam and later flew almost 800 combat missions over Iraq during the first gulf war.
There have been many incarnations of the squadron since its inception. Paul's four-year tour was in the 1960s with the old F-8 Crusader when the squadron patch originally read "vini-vidi-vici"--"we came, we saw, we conquered". But the joke always was "here come the guys with the 'VD'" so for obvious reasons, the "vidi" was taken out. The Assistant Commandant never mentioned that as part of the squadron's history.
I will say that as the daughter of a World War Two Marine who became a drill instructor and went on to fight in Korea, I found the ceremony very moving and interesting. I wish my dad could have been here to share the experience but he probably would have invoked his old contention that those aviation marines are just a "bunch of Airedales" (as in wimpy dogs). There's was always a spirited competition between infantry and aviation Marines.
I guess for Paul and many of the other attendees, this really is the last oooh-rah. His long-time (almost fifty years now) Marine buddy Willie Creager and his wife Gail were there. And the only other recognizable face in the crowd was a gentleman named Bill Bauer, who Paul remembered as a 24-year-old pilot in the early '60s.
By the way, Bill's dad Harold Bauer was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor as a Marine flyer in World War Two. Another gentleman showed up who Paul did not recall. He was a second lieutenant named "David Vest" who was also a pilot in the squadron when 451 was stationed at El Toro in Southern California.
Incidentally, if you find yourself in Pensacola, take the time to visit the Naval Aviation Museum. It is second only to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Air and Space in Washington, D.C. Very, very impressive with lots of interactive displays. By the way, both museums are free of charge.
But enough of this. Oooh-rah, Semper Fi. And the journey continues...See you down the road.
Incidentally, if you find yourself in Pensacola, take the time to visit the Naval Aviation Museum. It is second only to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Air and Space in Washington, D.C. Very, very impressive with lots of interactive displays. By the way, both museums are free of charge.
But enough of this. Oooh-rah, Semper Fi. And the journey continues...See you down the road.
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Keep it clean, please. And nice. And complimentary.