Blue Angels and NAS P'Cola

[Jake Donovan]

Eyeball account of NAS Pensacola and Naval Aviation Museum.



Flew into Sherman field yesterday. Field is in great shape. Museum looks
great. There is some damage to 4 or 5 of the tied down aircraft on the
Museum Flight line. Nothing that can not be fixed.



Coast Guard Station took it bad but it was built on the water. Light house
undamaged.



Blue Angels will stay based at NAS Pensacola and are planning to resume
shows after a brief trip out to El Centro. The BA Hanger held up well. VT
4 hanger's roof is folded up like an accordion. I didn't get a chance to
enter it to access damage.



Damage is bad but not as bad as first reported. Clean up and reconstruction
has already done an amazing job. Survival School (NOMI) on the water front
did well and could be operational in a few weeks.



Still many areas with no power. Most of the BOQ is open for business as is
the Touch and Go. Gas pumps will be on tomorrow on base. NEX on base was
under water and they have no estimate on when it will reopen.

[Doug \Woody\ and Erin Beal]

On 9/23/04 2:17 PM, in article RiF4d.1627$Tj.405@okepread02, "Jake Donovan"
> wrote:

> Eyeball account of NAS Pensacola and Naval Aviation Museum.
>
>
>
> Flew into Sherman field yesterday. Field is in great shape. Museum looks
> great. There is some damage to 4 or 5 of the tied down aircraft on the
> Museum Flight line. Nothing that can not be fixed.
>
>
>
> Coast Guard Station took it bad but it was built on the water. Light house
> undamaged.
>
>
>
> Blue Angels will stay based at NAS Pensacola and are planning to resume
> shows after a brief trip out to El Centro. The BA Hanger held up well. VT
> 4 hanger's roof is folded up like an accordion. I didn't get a chance to
> enter it to access damage.
>
>
>
> Damage is bad but not as bad as first reported. Clean up and reconstruction
> has already done an amazing job. Survival School (NOMI) on the water front
> did well and could be operational in a few weeks.
>
>
>
> Still many areas with no power. Most of the BOQ is open for business as is
> the Touch and Go. Gas pumps will be on tomorrow on base. NEX on base was
> under water and they have no estimate on when it will reopen.
>
>

Thanks for the first hand account. How did the Mustin Beach O'Club fare?

--Woody

[Jim McCartan]

Jake,

Any word on Whiting?

Jim

[Jake Donovan]

From what I have heard from reliable folks, almost all hangers at Whiting
lost their roofs. No word on the aircraft. We were going to take the NAS
SAR to Whiting but time constraints stopped us.

Mustin Beach O'Club did well. Looks like they will be operational in most
of the building in a few days.

The TA4J out front took a Fox 1 to the nose. (A pole about 6 feet long and
4 inches dia was sticking out the starboard side nose area. I was going to
take a picture of it but someone pulled it out before we drove back later in
the day. That was the only damage to the Scooter)


"Jim McCartan" > wrote in message
om...
> Jake,
>
> Any word on Whiting?
>
> Jim

[Jim Carriere]

Jake Donovan wrote:
> From what I have heard from reliable folks, almost all hangers at Whiting
> lost their roofs. No word on the aircraft. We were going to take the NAS
> SAR to Whiting but time constraints stopped us.

I saw what I thought was an NAS P'cola SAR H-3 flying there this
morning and a few days ago. Not sure why...?

Just about all the aircraft made it up to Memphis, and they will get
flown back starting in a few days. A handful got left behind in the
hangars, and AFAIK they didn't fare too badly. The gate guard
aircraft suffered varying amounts of damage- the helos are beat up
bad and missing a lot of parts, the front canopy on the T-34 slid
open, while the T-28 has been away for painting for a few months.

The rest of the buildings had varying damage, mostly in the roofs.

The base has been used by the National Guard for the past week.

Lastly, as for when things will return to normal, I doubt there will
be many or any "X's" even next week, but right now there is a winging
planned for next Friday.

Oops, one more thing- one of the gate sentries at Whiting, who was on
the base through the whole thing, told me that sometime before the
power went out and around the time of the eye making landfall, the
lawn sprinklers came on in the middle of the storm... :)