Naval Air Museum

    We drove over to Pensacola, FL a couple weeks ago to visit the Naval Air Museum. It's a pretty cool place , highlighting a large number of aircraft pretty much from the beginning of time thru the Viet Nam era. We both would have liked to see some of the most modern aircraft that our millitary are using but, I guess that they are using them.

    One of the neatest things about this museum is the Cubi Bar Cafe. I would assume that a lot of people miss seeing it because it is a working cafe which, until you get into it, is not really highlighted as a "must see" part of the museum. The Cafe's decor and layout duplicates the bar area of the famous Cubi Point Officers' Club that was a major source of enjoyment for Navy and Marine Corps squadrons, ships and units as they passed into the Western Pacific.

   For nearly 40 years, the NAS Cubi Point Officers' Club, in the Republic of the Philippines, was a mix of American efficiency and Filipino hospitality. The club was especially famous for its Plaque Bar, where transiting squadrons retired old plaques and commissioned new ones to commemorate each WestPac tour. The tradition of placing plaques in the O' Club bar was started during the Vietnam Conflict and endured until the closing of the base in 1992.

    When the original officers' club was closed in 1992, the thousands of plaques that adorned the walls of the club as tokens of thanks were packed up and sent to the Museum to be placed as they were when the Cubi Club was closed. The legacy of this Cubi Bar brings back many memories to aviators whose squadron plaques decorate the walls.