I am now visiting my good friends Cherie and Gary Zitzlsperger.  I’ve come from the woods and landed in the lap of the beach life.  Yesterday we visited theNaval Air Museum Pensacola.  This place has something of interest for even the most indifferent person to being here, and for people interested in history it’s like the west wing of heaven. (That’s Cherie and I out front.)

This is Gary and I looking through the cockpit of an A6 Intruder.  The A6 was an all weather workhorse aircraft in Viet Nam.

The famous Blue Angels are based here in the winter months.  These aircraft are probably two versions ago in their history.

And here’s me sitting in the cockpit section of one.

This picture has a lot of reflections because it’s encased in plexiglass.  It’s a about a 12 foot long scale model of the USS Enterprise in full flight operations mode.  The detail was unbelievable.  This display was of particular interest to me because my nephew Scott was stationed on the Enterprise for part of his time in the Navy.

The other exhibit I want to mention was a section dedicated to the Viet Nam era POWs.  It had the pajamas we have seen on videos and newsreels.  And there were sketches that some of the POWs had made and smuggled out.  And other art they have created since their return.  Remember the bracelets with the names?  There were hundreds that people wore and then donated to this exhibit.  There were the items they used to secretly communicate.  My eyes were welled with tears the whole time because I have always been in awe of what these men endured.

Many thanks to my friends Cherie and Gary for bringing me here.  I loved it.