West Florida: Local Military
Naval
Air Station Whiting provides primary fixed- and rotary-wing pilot training
for the Navy, the Air Force and many foreign countries.
Naval Air Station
Pensacola, "Cradle of Naval Aviation", is the home of the Navy's flight
demonstration team, the Blue Angels, and the Museum of Naval Aviation. It
is the largest aviation training site in the Navy. The training covers all
aviation specialties and involves Navy, Air Force, and foreign students.
Eglin Air Force Base is the largest
military facility in the world. It houses the Air Force center for testing
and developing new weapons, a tactical fighter wing, and, at the facilities
on Hurlburt Field, the Special
Operations Command.
Explosive Ordinance Disposal training for the Air Force and the Navy is tucked
away in a corner of Eglin, while Army Rangers learn wetlands operations deep
in the woods, swamps, and creeks on this massive facility.
Tyndall Air Force Base houses a
wing of F-15's for advanced pilot training. Recently the F-22 Raptor has been added to Tyndall's inventory and the base will be the primary point of integration for the new aircraft.
While newcomers in Gulf Breeze, near Pensacola, have created a hot spot for
UFO reports, if an actual alien spacecraft landed in the center of Fort Walton
Beach, the police would call Eglin and tell them to remove their latest
experiment from the road.
This is not an area for people worried about "black helicopters". The Special
Operations aircraft (dark gray, not really black) fly over at low altitude
most nights.
When the space shuttle lands in California, it (atop a modified 747) stops
at Eglin on the way back to the Cape.
This is a must see area for aviation enthusiasts. The new, unusual, manned
and unmanned, domestic and foreign, are commonplace in our skies.
Military Service : A graphics
look at my military service.
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