Sue Presley, one of our long-term volunteers first came to this Museum to purchase a poster of the Flight 19 Squadron. By the time she left, thanks to Museum's founder Allan McElhiney's persuasiveness, she was a member, volunteer assistant to Allan, and had acquired space to use for display of her Eastern Airlines memorabilia! Sue was employed by Eastern in Atlanta, Georgia in 1965 as an airport agent. She transferred to Fort Lauderdale Airport in 1970. She later worked at Miami International Airport as an agent and as a Special Services Representative. In 1979, after Sue's daughters were grown up and getting married, Sue became a Flight Attendant for Eastern. Along the way, she became a private pilot. She remained with Eastern until 1990, when she accepted early retirement nine months before Eastern ended its long life as one of the country's major carriers. Sue's love of flying remains intact. She has been to all 50 States and to more than 50 foreign countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, many places it would not be possible to visit today. In February, Sue flew to Washington, DC with daughter Debbie and son-in-law Pat to see the newest addition to the family, their grandson baby James, who is Sue's first great-grandchild. Sue is thinking of one more major trip to Russia or Israel, health and finances permitting. Until then, she says that she will do her traveling through the many interesting displays in our Naval Air Station Museum. THANK YOU SUE, for all you do!

Larry Rivera, son of WWII veteran Ray Rivera, discovered this Museum while he was riding his motorcycle around Perimeter Rd. He told his father Ray (a WWII sailor and survivor on the USS Bunker Hill), about his visit to the place and brought him over to meet Allan, the founder and custodian. That was 7 years ago. Ray & Larry have been the most dedicated volunteers. They enjoy spending time together while painting, pressure cleaning, landscaping and taking care of the continuous maintenance of this Museum. OUR DEEPEST THANKS TO BOTH!

A large display bookcase was planned, constructed, assembled and finally completed!  
It will be very useful as it will showcase many Museum artifacts that are being currently sorted and organized. The bookcase runs the length of the 25x7 foot On Final Approach mural. The project was led by Dr. John D. Bloom, with help from volunteers John Casey, Ray Rivera, Richard Haddad & Don Fallon. 

Great work guys!
Click to view larger - Before and after

Members and volunteers of the NASFL Museum, Richard Haddad & William Davids continue with their archeology digging project, from the grounds of the WWII Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, on the outskirts of the the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.  This time they found what they thought it was a mine, but it turned out to be an old water pipe. They will continue with their search for artifacts, as a mine and an Avenger torpedo was previously found in the grounds back in 1999. Both were inactive, thank goodness, but they still had to call in the bomb squad.

Mr. Davids already found several period glass bottles from the servicemen that were stationed at this base during WWII. Keep on guys!

Naval Aviation Museum (Pensacola, Florida)
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org
Volunteer Coordinator: voladmin.navalaviation@mchsi.com
National Naval Aviation Museum
1750 Radford Blvd., Suite C
Naval Air Station Pensacola, FL 32508
Phone: (850) 452-3604 or (850) 452-3606
Fax: (850) 452-3296

Naval Air Station Sanford Memorial
At the Sanford Orlando Airport
http://nassanfordmemorial.com/volunteers.htm
Contact: Sean Mahany at 407-415-1503

Fantasy of Flight - Polk City, Florida (near Orlando,FL)
http://www.fantasyofflight.com
1400 Broadway Blvd. S.E.
Polk City, FL 33868
(863)984-3500

National Navy UDT-Seal Museum (Fort Pierce, FL)
http://www.navysealmuseum.com/index.php
3300 North A1A, North Hutchinson Island
Fort Pierce, Florida 34949
(772) 595-5845

Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum  (Titusville, FL)
www.vacwarbirds.org
Featuring aircraft WW1 to Desert Storm
Aircraft Restorations

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum
http://www.nasflmuseum.com/volunteer.html
Currently accepting volunteers for curatorial, cataloging,
and organization of exhibit projects.
No Aircraft restorations are available.

From the Save Our History - Military Show
A Tribute to Veterans at the Pompano Beach Elk's Lodge
January 18th and 19th

The Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum displayed merchandise at this show in an effort to gather funds. All proceeds from sales at the NASFL Museum booth will benefit our Museum. This booth was courtesy of Florida East Coast Collector, Inc. which organized this event for its second year. Thank you to volunteers: Debbie Hamilton, Sue Presley, Angela Piraino, Minerva Bloom, John Casey and Forrest King for helping with the set-up & public relations!

This military show showcased battle re-enactments, civil war, World War I and World War II military encampment on grounds, military vehicles and motorcycles, live gatling gun shoot and civil war cannon fire.  See you next year!

Click on images to view larger

News on the large hallway at the NASFL Museum:
This was a physically tough and exhausting project. In total 6 layers of flooring covered the original hardwood floor in the hallway of the historic Link Trainer Building. Each layer had to be carefully peeled, and hundreds of rusty nails removed. The large area had to be worked in small sections at a time. This hallway connects the library, office, restrooms, and exhibit rooms of the Museum.

Richard Haddad led the project with help from volunteers John Bloom & Anthony Alberico. The bottom layer which was the most difficult to remove, was accomplished with the help of outstanding members of the Navy Reserve Captain Scott Hahn USN, Captain Bruce Fuchs USN, and CRD Rey Horta USN, who have been longtime supporters and volunteers of this Museum with Navy Heritage Project.  We are grateful to all of them for their help and service. Our hope is to restore the hardwood to its original beauty. For now, the floor is temporarily covered with carpet squares donated by the Aiport.

The second phase of this restoration project is currently taking place.

Click on images to view larger

Our volunteers of the Month for December 2012 are: Forrest King, David Baum and Anthony Alberico. Forrest and David participated in the organization of Senator John McCain's visit, the Flight 19 Memorial Ceremony, and the Open House that the Museum hosted. 

High School student Anthony Alberico participated in the restoration of the hallway floor (stripping old carpet and several layers of flooring); as well as in the making of custom bookcases. For this project, his group of eagle scouts will measure, gather donated materials from several companies, and then make the bookcases on site. 

Thank you to all these 3 special volunteers for their participation and hard work!

NEW ! The CAPTAIN JOHN PAYNE MEMORIAL LIBRARY & RESEARCH CENTER

The storage room in the NE corner of the building was cleaned out, re-carpeted and painted, and new window treatments were provided by member Dorothy Riser. The project was led by Richard Haddad, with volunteers Ray Rivera, John Casey, John Bloom and Anthony Alberico, including Navy Reservists who moved all the bookshelves and books into this space to create our new Library/Research Center. This created space in the hallway, to include our Gift Shop! The large hallway is our next project, and will consist of removing old carpet to expose the original wood flooring— which will be restored.

Thank you to Angela Mary Piraino and Lauren Crawford for their hard work at the Museum! Angela helped with the organization and design of several exhibits and also with office work. And Lauren curated and organized several projects for our Online-Only Exhibits, as well as organizing hallways with plaques and recording of inventory.

Angela Mary Piraino is a teacher, a musician and a children's author. Lauren Crawford is a University of Florida student She is studying Broadcasting. Thank you wonderful ladies for your hard work and dedication!

Volunteers Anthony Alberico from St. Thomas Aquinas High School and Vietnam veteran John Casey prepare to fold the US Flag that was donated by WWII veteran David Epstein, for this Museum. This flag flew on the US Capitol building on July 4th, 2012.