For 'megan': A USN e-mail correspondent sent me this e-mail (relevant to other USNers on the e-mail list) which may be useful for your endeavours?
"GOOD MEMORIES by Tom Smith
Old aviators,
You guys ever think back to how it all began? That first ride over the bridge to NAS Pensacola... In the old days, Marine Guards stood watch on the gate... Crisp uniforms, polished white helmet liners with yellow and red stripes on the side and the large golden Globe and Anchor on the front... Even to the uninitiated, you knew you were entering a new and exciting phase of your young life.
After you received your temporary pass, you drive through the Main Gate and are confronted with the gleaming Blue Angel F-9 or F-11... Depending on the year... And your heart started beating just a little faster... And your mind immediately thought of the possibilities of your future... Maybe, just maybe... Someday....
If you took the left fork in the road and drove up the hill, past the golf course, toward the BOQ... And continued past it... As you crested the top... Off to your right was Captains Row... Antebellum homes over looking the parade field, football stadium, the beautiful Base Chapel and eventually out to the bay.
On the left was Chevalier Field... Home of O&R or NARF as it was later called... And parked on the field, depending on the year... Would be gleaming, newly painted aircraft right out of re-work. They could have been; F6F's, F-9's, SNB's, TV-2's, T-28's or later, even A-4's... Tucked way back to the left, were about a dozen or so, Cosmoline coated old veterans... A Corsair, Bearcat, Tigercat, Panther, Banshee and others... Planes that would later provide the nucleus for our future museum that was only just a dream at the time.
As you approached the Base Headquarters building... If you went left again, you drove by a brick wall that predated the Civil War... Continuing around, it eventually turned back to the right and approached the docks. If you were lucky, you might have had your first glimpse of a real aircraft carrier (the first of many). It could have been called Saipan or Antietam... Or Lexington... All veterans of the last "Good War". And again your mind reflected... Maybe, just maybe... Some day...
Just past the carrier, the road took another right turn and brought you along the sea wall and the old hangars on your left. You didn't know it at the time, but this was the real birthplace of Naval Aviation... Where once old Curtiss Triads and other long forgotten sea planes and float planes were launched and trained the first of those to go before us; sharing the bay with old square-riggers still in service.
As you continued west, on your right was the old Training Command Headquarters... And a large number of brick buildings which you would soon learn were barracks and training buildings... The altitude chamber and the Navy Exchange. Just past the hangars on the left was the indoor swimming pool where you were first introduced to the Dilbert Dunker and other torture devices only known to Naval Aviators... Past that was the Survival School and their small animal collection, inside the building was a cutaway of the old PBY.
Past that was the water tower and obstacle course... If you took the road to your right, here you'd find NAMI Headquarters... The National Cemetery and the Base Hospital, where you'd sweat out your Indoc physical... Take eye and hearing tests and experience your first (and hopefully last) EEG... Needles in the head and strobe lights... Who could ever forget it. Somewhere in here was also the "Flight Equipment Shop"... Where you'd receive your first flight gear; your first leather jacket and be introduced to your first real "smells" unique to Naval Aviation... I can close my eyes and still remember the smell of my first flight jacket, flight suit, oxygen mask and helmet... Bet you can too.
If you had continued on the main road, you'd go past the incredible Officers Club at Mustin Beach... And then on your right you come upon an awesome sight; the old Fort Barrancas... Even more history than you expected in this short journey. Driving up the hill, you see the light house... And eventually on your right, you see Sherman Field.
This is where the action was... Even back then the Blue Angels had a hangar there... But there were also the planes you soon hoped to fly. Depending on the generation, they were Panthers, Cougars, Banshee's... T-28's, T-2's, two seat F-9's or TA-4's... Whether you stayed there or went to Meridian or Texas... This was most likely the place you came back to for your first look at a carrier deck from a cockpit.
If you were like me... You probably parked near the tower and Base Ops and watched the traffic pattern where all manner of aircraft were landing and taking off... everything from T-34's to F-8's and Phantoms... or they could have been SNJ's, T-28's, Panthers and Bearcats... if it had been just a few years earlier. And here once again, your mind would wander and you'd think... maybe, just maybe... someday...
Thinking back, our first experiences were so unique from our other services... where newbies encountered cookie cutter bases, that ranged from no-where Texas, to Oklahoma, to Mississippi or a beautiful, but miserably hot Arizona. They all felt and looked the same, save the local climate and topography... but ours was sooo different... Awesome, beautiful, historical and almost overwhelming... and we all shared the same experience.
Damn we were lucky!"