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Naval air station, home of the Blue Angels, lies in tatters
St. Petersburg Times ^ | September 19, 2004 | JONI JAMES

Posted on 09/19/2004 9:29:23 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl

Naval air station, home of the Blue Angels, lies in tatters

By JONI JAMES
Published September 19, 2004

PENSACOLA - The home of the Blue Angels was battered by Hurricane Ivan.

It will be weeks before the Pensacola Naval Air Station will be back to normal after hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to hangars and historic buildings.

"We were the first ones to show up, so we're the first ones to clean up," said Petty Officer Wayne Buchanan, 25, an electronics teacher.

Nearly 180 years after President John Adams commissioned this Navy base on the strategic shores of Pensacola Bay to help protect the Gulf of Mexico, the air station where Navy aviators earn their wings is bruised and broken. All 2,000 buildings on the base, including 577 homes, are believed to have been damaged.

But no one was injured. "That's the best news we had," Pruitt said.

All but 200 of the base's 12,000 population, including students, were evacuated.

Its picturesque historic port is reduced to windowless, doorless and roofless buildings, some of them partially collapsed.

The careful symmetry of Barrancas National Cemetery, where graves date to the Civil War and more than 30,000 veterans are buried, is disrupted by fallen oaks.

Modern bayfront barracks are sodden, the tin roofs ripped and rolled.

Only the fortified walls of the two-centuries-old Fort Barrancas, which stands on the bluff that lured Spanish explorer Don Tristan de Luna in the 16th century, appear untouched.

"Down by the port area was almost catastrophic," said base commander Capt. John Pruitt, who spent Hurricane Ivan holed up in the base's fortified command center. "We were stunned."

In 1992, after Hurricane Andrew tore through southern Miami-Dade County, the U.S. Air Force abandoned Homestead Air Force Base rather than rebuild.

But Pruitt said there's no such talk about Pensacola. The Navy is very mindful of trying to sustain historical structures.

Fresh after arriving from Nantucket, Mass., where the Blue Angels - the Navy's flight demonstration team - canceled a performance for this weekend, the team's leader, Cmdr. Russ Bartlett, toured the base with Chief Petty Officer Louis Arrazola and Master Chief Petty Officer Kevin Harris.

"It would be disingenuous to be flying air shows when we can be doing good work here," said Bartlett, who had ordered the Fat Albert C-130 transport plane used to support the Blue Angels team to be unloaded to make way for some cargo missions to ferry supplies and resources to the base.
[Last modified September 19, 2004, 06:04:21]

Florida headlines

 


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Florida; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blueangels; hurricaneivan; pensacola; pensacolanas; usn
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

To: Ragtime Cowgirl

Thanks! Great photo; good to see the old girl weathering it well.

We visited in 99, but don't get down that way very often.

I remember several large buildings & shore displays; they would have presented the main hazard as parts of them pelted the ships.


22 posted on 09/19/2004 4:04:51 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (The world needs more horses, and fewer Jackasses!)
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To: F15Eagle
I've been to the USS ALABAMA also - very interesting day.

Did the Blue Angels ever fly the F15? Perhaps the Thunderbirds?

I recall seeing the Blue Angels out at China Lake, California in 1974 flying the A4. What an awesome sight!

23 posted on 09/19/2004 5:57:35 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (47 days until November 2nd)
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Comment #26 Removed by Moderator

To: F15Eagle
Thank for tracking down all of that info on the T-Birds!

BTT

27 posted on 09/19/2004 7:22:25 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (47 days until November 2nd)
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To: Samwise; msdrby

Anchors blown aweigh


28 posted on 09/19/2004 7:25:53 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Grand Poobah~Benevolent & Protective Order of Irascible Fellows. That's right, I'm a Curmudgeon.)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl

Cool way to ride out a hurricane. You can bet they're not going to find a battleship tossed three miles inland.


29 posted on 09/19/2004 7:51:13 PM PDT by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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To: Professional Engineer
Woah! Thanks for the ping. Hubby and I are glad to read that the museum's inside displays weren't damaged even though the building took a hit.

Those pictures are so sad. Of course, we are so grateful that no one on base was hurt, but that base itself is like a friend. We loved driving around there and touring the place. Of course, last year they wouldn't let anyone do that. At least they offered a bus tour, which was OK.

It looks like Fort Barrancas will be around for another couple of centuries. That's pretty cool. The place freaked me out though. I thought all forts were like Boonesborough. :^)
30 posted on 09/19/2004 7:54:27 PM PDT by Samwise (Kerry's convoluted speaking style correlates with his convoluted thought processes.)
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To: Travis McGee

I've heard that it took severe damage just like the rest of NAS.


31 posted on 09/19/2004 8:58:22 PM PDT by Eagle Eye (Working in a war zone; now my home town looks like one.)
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To: Happy2BMe
Although an inconvenience for the Blue Angels, it seems like they'll get through this better than most Pensacola units as they are probably the best equipped to travel. I'm sure they were able to evacuate their equipment with less hassle than others as most of it is set up to move.
32 posted on 09/19/2004 9:10:38 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult ("I hate going to places like Austin and Dubuque to raise large sums of money. But I have to," Kerry)
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To: Eagle Eye

Thanks. Damn shame. It's marina pile-ups when I'm most glad I have a steel boat.


33 posted on 09/19/2004 9:14:22 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Travis McGee

Every time I saw a photo of a boat owner tying up to the dock and doublechecking his knots I had to think that he was just plain crazy to underestimate the force of those winds and waves.


34 posted on 09/19/2004 9:29:13 PM PDT by Eagle Eye (Working in a war zone; now my home town looks like one.)
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To: Eagle Eye

In SC, we had terrific deep rivers we could run up, for many miles. In a lot of FL, the marina is the only option. In general, steel boats use their fiberglass neighbors as fenders, and come through with cosmetic damage. Their fiberglass and wood boats get crushed and splintered against pilings and each other, and sink. Even when steel boats are carried inland or beached by the wind, waves and surge, they can be refloated with no loss of hull integrity.


35 posted on 09/19/2004 9:42:59 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl; All; Jim Robinson
No fear... the home of the Blue Angels is Freerepublic. As a peaceful people, we establish a new home and a new name for our proud warriors of information. We are the brave and strong. The TANG documents are cryptocode for what will be happening in the future. the destruction of the Navel Station in Pensecola is linked to the Civil War. How? Pen (write) se(a|e) (eye) Cola (Coca cola is in Atlanta) - Sherman's march to the sea .. AND OH WICKED COOL! I just had an 'idear' for the coolest. program. ever for freerepublic - it scans the body of a post for keywords we know the meaning of and adds the keywords.. saves reading a bunch of stuff... set up scans with email alerts.. blackberry messages with articles of interest as soon as they are posted... I think the new blackberries have a web brower too.. Cool cool cool - anyone interested in this, let me know... I'm a perl hacker and this should be CAKE! Automatic HTML markup of the subscripts and super scripts... Cool beans!!!

Emergency - assignation plot The careful symmetry of Barrancas National Cemetery, where graves date to the Civil War and more than 30,000 veterans are buried, is disrupted by fallen oaks.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220055/posts?q=1&&page=51

36 posted on 09/19/2004 10:04:56 PM PDT by DaveMSmith (Blue Angel in PJs)
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To: Hillarys Gate Cult
Oh to be sure the Angels got out with all their equipment and transport craft and support gear.

They'll be back. My brother was approached back in the late 60's by the Angels (he was a fighter instructor pilot at Cherry Point) to become one of them.

He crashed and hurt his back before he could get the transfer. So they put him in helicopters and went to Viet Nam (USMC Air Recon). All he got out of it was 39 Air Medals, 3 Purple Hearts, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and a lot of satisfaction in serving his country for 3 consecutive tours (e.g., 3 straight years in Nam).

37 posted on 09/19/2004 10:09:16 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (46 days until November 2nd)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Back in the '90's the Clinton administration decided to move the Aviation Technical schools from Memphis to P'cola to save money. Smart move.
38 posted on 09/19/2004 10:23:30 PM PDT by oyez (¡Qué viva la revolución de Reagan!)
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl

Thank you so much for this post.
I've forwarded the links to the pics to hubby, who forwarded them to his Navy buddies.
They have, all, been very concerned about the damage to this very beautiful, old base.
They went through AOCS, and flight training there.
After two tours in Viet Nam, hubby was stationed there as an instructor in VT-4.
We used the marina quite a bit before we married, and as a family with a toddler.

Seeing those pics just makes me want to cry.


39 posted on 09/19/2004 10:43:56 PM PDT by dixiechick2000
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
If they had only left the schools at Millington the goverment would have been saved millions of dollars. Schools would not have been interupted and my children would be coming to Memphis instead of worring about their transfer to NAS Pensacola and if they will have a place to live. As a Navy family we are praying for all of the people that have lost homes, but especially for the ones that are serving our country.
40 posted on 09/20/2004 1:22:32 PM PDT by Coldwater Creek
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