THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170401
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PENSACOLA LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
This is the town that Navy fliers built.
True, they fly out of places like Norfolk and Virginia Beach, but this is where all of them are trained. This is where the history of naval aviation seems as thick as the Spanish moss that waves in the breeze.
Since 1914, when a former naval yard was converted to the Pensacola Naval Air Station, this ``cradle of naval aviation,'' as it likes to identify itself, has provided basic training for Navy pilots and aviators.
Pensacola also is fondly called the ``mother-in-law'' of naval aviation because so many young Pensacola women have married naval aviators.
Although filmed in Bremerton, Wash., the movie ``An Officer and a Gentleman'' was about training and husband-hunting at Pensacola.
Pensacola also happens to be headquarters for naval aviation's cream of the crop, the Blue Angels.
In case you'd forgotten, the Blue Angels Taxi Co., the Blue Angels Baptist Church, the Blue Angels Child Care Center, the Blue Angels Recreation Center and the Blue Angels Parkway are among the constant reminders. The mayor of the city and the director of the National Naval Aviation Museum are former Blue Angels.
If you haven't absorbed enough aviation lore from the museum, you can find it in one of America's most curious bars, Trader Jon's.
``Trader's,'' which occupies a 100-year-old building near the waterfront, is as crowded with naval aviator memorabilia as the museum. In fact, the three-room establishment, festooned with nearly 100 airplane models and wallpapered with air show posters and photos, may be just as well known.
``TJ's,'' the dive portrayed in ``An Officer and a Gentleman,'' was supposedly Trader Jon's. The bar had strippers until the city outlawed the custom in the 1980s, according to local historians. Celebrities, from John Wayne to Prince Charles, have made a point of stopping there.
Since 1941, when Martin Weissman, an Army vet from Manhattan's Lower East Side, founded the place, it has been a leading aviator hangout.
``I seen this here town, and I was almost paralyzed by it; I never wanted to leave,'' says Weissman, whose attire includes ``Garfield'' shorts, an aviator cap, running shoes and deliberately mismatched socks.
``I'm the only one alive who has met and known every Blue Angel who has ever flown,'' proclaims Weissman, showing visitors through a cavernous room dedicated to the elite fliers. There are Blue Angel flight suits and model planes, but the most impressive are the photographs, of 50 years' worth of Blue Angel teams.
Several plaques and photos attest to Weissman's status as ``honorary flight leader.''
As far as Weissman is concerned, no one in Pensacola who is not associated with the Blue Angels is worth the time of day.
He says, in all seriousness, ``You have to have a certain love for the team to amount to anything.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Martin Weissman, an Army vet from New York City, founded Trader
Jon's in 1941. In the years since, his bar has become a leading
aviator hangout. He says he has met all of the Blue Angels who have
ever flown with the 50-year-old squad.
All types of Navy planes, jets and aviation memorabilia are
preserved in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.
The museum also has four Blue Angel Jets hanging on display. A
former naval yard was converted to the Pensacola Naval Air Station
in 1914.
KEYWORDS: BLUE ANGELS
by CNB