Pensacola, FL
Pensacola has been called the Cradle of Naval Aviation since 1914, when the first naval aviation training facility was established at adjacent Naval Air Station Pensacola. WWII trained more than 28,000 naval aviators here. The civilian airport sits Class C alongside NAS Pensacola — home to the Blue Angels and the National Naval Aviation Museum, where the SBD Dauntless that survived Midway, an F-14 Tomcat, and a full Apollo command module sit under one roof. The Cubi Bar Café inside the museum recreates the Officers Club at NAS Cubi Point, Philippines — pilots have been signing the wall plaques there for decades.
The most extensive naval aviation collection in the world — more than 150 aircraft on the ground and in flight, on the grounds of NAS Pensacola. The SBD Dauntless that helped sink the Japanese fleet at Midway hangs from the ceiling. Apollo 7 command module, NC-4 (first aircraft to cross the Atlantic, 1919), F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder, Blue Angels A-4F, and the only surviving Curtiss Pusher trainer (1911). Free admission. The Cubi Bar Café inside recreates the Officers Club at NAS Cubi Point, Philippines — pilots have signed plaques on these walls for decades.
Naval Air Station Pensacola has been the home of US Navy flight training since 1914. During WWII, some 28,000 naval aviators earned their wings here — including a young George H.W. Bush, who became the Navy's youngest pilot at age 18. The base is home to the National Naval Aviation Museum, the world's largest naval aviation museum with over 150 restored aircraft. It's also home base of the Blue Angels. The museum and base are accessible by car after landing at KPNS, but from the air, the scale of the facility — hangars, runways, and seaplane ramps dating to WWI — tells the story of naval aviation's birthplace. The on-base National Naval Aviation Museum is the largest of its kind: 150-plus aircraft including the SBD Dauntless that helped turn Midway, the NC-4, an F-14, and a Blue Angels A-4; admission is free, and the Cubi Bar Cafe inside recreates the old Officers Club from NAS Cubi Point.
On Eglin Air Force Base near KVPS. Free admission. Outdoor display includes an SR-71 Blackbird, B-17G Flying Fortress, B-52D Stratofortress, B-25 Mitchell, F-105 Thunderchief, F-15A Eagle, and an A-10 Warthog. Indoor exhibits cover the development of Air Force armament: every air-launched weapon from WWII to today, the Doolittle Raid (with a B-25 Mitchell mockup), the Son Tay POW raid (planned and rehearsed at Eglin in 1970), and the long history of Eglin as the proving ground for U.S. air-delivered weapons. The Doolittle gallery has training photos, original maps, and crew memorabilia from the 1942 mission practice on Eglin's auxiliary fields.
A Gulf-front estate on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi, between Gulfport and Biloxi proper. Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America, lived here from 1877 until his death in 1889 — the years after the Civil War when he wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" in the small library cottage on the grounds. The house was built in 1848 in the Greek Revival raised-cottage style; Davis didn't build it but bought it from its original owner's family. After Davis's death, his widow Varina sold the property to the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1903 with the condition that it be preserved as a Confederate veterans' home (which it operated as until 1957) and then as a memorial to her husband. The site was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — the museum and Confederate cemetery were destroyed, the main house unroofed. Restoration completed in 2008. The site remains controversial as Confederate-memory landscape, and the on-site Presidential Library was rebuilt as a more conventional historical museum.