Trader Jon's

This is a biography of Martin Weismann, owner of the legendary Pensacola, Florida bar, Trader Jon's, a second home to thousands of naval aviators, movie stars, and journalists over a period of almost 50 years. For nearly four decades, Trader Jon's was where the men who trained to fly the monster jets of the U.S. Navy let down their hair before going off to fight-and sometimes die-in lonely battles above obscure patches of water and land over Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia. One measure of...
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This is a biography of Martin Weismann, owner of the legendary Pensacola, Florida bar, Trader Jon's, a second home to thousands of naval aviators, movie stars, and journalists over a period of almost 50 years. For nearly four decades, Trader Jon's was where the men who trained to fly the monster jets of the U.S. Navy let down their hair before going off to fight-and sometimes die-in lonely battles above obscure patches of water and land over Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia. One measure of the Navy's deep regard for Weismann is the singular honor afforded him by the naval air station of naming a runway after him-TRADR-ONE. The book also includes an encounter with Lt. Colonel Sarah Deal, the first female pilot to fly for the U.S. Marine Corps. She was in Pensacola to undergo training at the Naval Air Station.It was where America's astronauts contemplated their future as they gazed at the time-worn artifacts of the past. Alan Shepard the first American in space and John Glenn the third American to travel in space were frequent visitors to the bar. It was where the famed Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's precision flying team, met each year to induct new members into their ranks. Also among the celebrity Navy pilots who trained in Pensacola was late U.S. Senator John McCain, who was a regular at the bar during his training.