Being a part of a military community, we have met and
became friends with many military families that are now all over the world. If you are relocating to the Pensacola
area and are thinking of purchasing a home, we would be honored to help you make that move as smooth as possible. I
trust that after the move is complete we can call each other friends.
We have many resources from lending companies to area
sports leagues that we can refer you to in order to help make the transition for the parents, as well as the
children, as smooth as possible. The children are the most important key to making the transition easier for the
parents and this is sometimes over looked. Our knowledge of the local schools and the advantages that each of them
have can help a parent choose the best suited school for their children. As life long residents of the Pensacola
area and someone who has children, we can share our knowledge with the parents and hopefully this will make the
transition easy on children also.
We understand the struggles that are placed on military
families and we go out of our way just to show them how much we do appreciate them. If you are looking for real
estate and want agents who really cares, you need the Singleton Team. Give us a call, we will be glad to help.
Military Family Relocation
Specialist
If you are moving to the area and desire
immediate assistance, please give our team of Military Family Relocation Specialists a call at
(850) 554-9513. The Singleton Team is an excellent resource for Military Families PCSing to NAS Pensacola, with
extensive knowledge of the Pensacola Area and the desired ability to understand and interpret client needs while
assisting them in their home search. Our team has a unique insight into the process and how it can be streamlined
to cause your family the least amount of stress. You can reach Darryl and LaDawn at (850) 554-9513 or send them a
email.
Military Relocations can be complicated. Your house is not just an address. Your house is a
place you call home, a place to call your own, and one of the biggest investments that you will make. As your
Realtors�, the Singleton Team will dedicate themselves to your best real estate interests whether you are selling
or buying a condo, townhouse or a detached home.
About Naval Air Station Pensacola
The site now occupied by Naval Air Station
Pensacola has a colorful historical background dating back to the 16th century when Spanish explorer Don Tristan de
Luna founded a colony here on the bluff where Fort Barrancas is now situated. Realizing the advantages of the
Pensacola harbor and the large timber reserves nearby for shipbuilding, President John Quincy Adams and Secretary
of the Navy Samuel Southard, in 1825, made arrangements to build a Navy yard on the Southern tip of Escambia
County, where the air station is today. Navy Captains William Bainbridge, Lewis Warrington, and James Biddle
selected the site on Pensacola Bay.
Construction began in April 1826, and the Pensacola Navy
Yard became one of the best equipped naval stations in the country. In its early years the base dealt mainly with
the suppression of slave trade and piracy in the Gulf and Caribbean. When New Orleans was captured by Union forces
in 1862, Confederate troops, fearing attack from the west, retreated from the Navy Yard and reduced most of the
facilities to rubble. After the war, the ruins at the yard were cleared away and work was begun to rebuild the
base. Many of the present structures on the air station were built during this period, including the stately two
and three-story houses on North Avenue. In 1906, many of these newly rebuilt structures were destroyed by a great
hurricane and tidal wave.
Meanwhile, great strides were being made in aviation.
The Wright Brothers and especially Glenn Curtiss were trying to prove to the Navy that the airplane had a place in
the fleet. The first aircraft carrier was built in January 1911, and a few weeks later, the seaplane made its first
appearance. Then, civilian pilot Eugene Ely landed a frail craft aboard USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay, and
the value of the airplane to the Navy had been demonstrated. The Navy Dept., now awakened to the possibilities of
Naval Aviation through the efforts of Capt. W. I. Chambers, prevailed upon congress to include in the Naval
Appropriation Act enacted in 1911-12 a provision for aeronautical development. Chambers was ordered to devote all
of his time to naval aviation.
In October 1913, Secretary of the Navy, Josephus
Daniels, appointed a board, with Capt. Chambers as chairman, to make a survey of aeronautical needs and to
establish a policy to guide future development. One of the board�s most important recommendations was the
establishment of an aviation training station in Pensacola. Upon entry into World War I, Pensacola, still the only
naval air station, had 38 naval aviators, 163 enlisted men trained in aviation, and 54 airplanes. Two years later,
by the signing of the armistice in November 1918, the air station, with 438 officers and 5538 enlisted men, had
trained 1,000 naval aviators. At war�s end, seaplanes, dirigibles, and free kite balloons were housed in steel and
wooden hangars stretching a mile down the air station beach.
In the years following World War I, aviation training
slowed down. From the 12-month flight course, an average of 100 pliots were graduating yearly. This was before the
day of aviation cadets, and the majority of the students included in the flight training program were Annapolis
graduates. A few enlisted men also graduated. Thus, Naval Air Station Pensacola became known as the "Annapolis
of the Air." With the inaugration of 1935 of the cadet training program, activity at Pensacola again expanded.
When Pensacola�s training facilities could no longer accomodate the ever increasing number of cadets accepted by
the Navy, two more naval air stations were created - one in Jacksonville, Florida, and the other in Corpus Christi,
Texas. In August 1940, a larger auxiliary base, Saufley Field, named for LT R. C. Saufley, Naval Aviator 14, was
added to Pensacola�s activities. In October 1941, a third field, named after LT T.G. Allicin, was commissioned.
As the nations of the world moved toward World War II,
NAS Pensacola once again became the hub of air training activities. NAS expanded again, training 1,100 cadets a
month, 11 times the amount trained annually in the �20s. The growth of NAS from 10 tents to the world�s greatest
naval aviation center was emphasized by then Senator Owen Brewster�s statement:: "The growth of naval aviation
during World War II is one of the wonders of the modern world." War in Korea presented problems as the
military was caught in the midst of transition from propellers to jets, and the air station revised its courses and
training techniques. Nonetheless, NAS produced 6,000 aviators from 1950 to 1953.
Pilot training requirements shifted upward to meet the
demands for the Vietnam War which occupied much of the 1960s and 1970s. Pilot production was as high as 2,552
(1968) and as low as 1,413 (1962). In 1971, NAS was picked as the headquarters site for CNET, a new command which
combined direction and control of all Navy education and training. The Naval Air Basic Training Command was
absorbed by the Naval Air Training Command, which moved to Corpus Christi.
Today, the Pensacola Naval Complex in Escambia and Santa
Rosa counties employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel.
