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

St. Petersburg Times ^ | September 19, 2004 | JONI JAMES

[ApplegateRanch]

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.

[Happy2BMe]

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!

[Happy2BMe]

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

BTT

[Professional Engineer]

Anchors blown aweigh

[PLMerite]

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

[Samwise]

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. :^)

[Eagle Eye]

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

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

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.

[Travis McGee]

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

[Eagle Eye]

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.

[Travis McGee]

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.

[DaveMSmith]

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 ^Pense_cola 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

[Happy2BMe]

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).

[oyez]

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.

[dixiechick2000]

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.

[Coldwater Creek]

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.