Taking a vacation from the USS Ranger to grace the ramp at the NAS Whidbey open house in the early 60’s is 135376, later transferred to South Vietnam’s air force.

131898 was one of several Albatrosses assigned to NAS Whidbey. Boeing Field is the location of this photo.

Although the planes are long gone, the base remains.

The hangar seen here was converted in 1977 to house the navy’s department store, the Naval Exchange. Looking nothing like a hangar on the inside (and nothing like a department store on the outside), its parking lot is what you see here: 1942 concrete, the aircraft mooring points still plainly visible today.

Despite its makeover, vestiges of hangar life remain inside. There are aircraft power outlets, and storage rooms that were once offices have hideous green paint from the 1950s.

It’s open house time, and in addition to the Neptune, we see a P5M Marlin cruising over NAS Whidbey’s Ault Field. They belong, respectively, to VP-2, and VP-47.

Whidbey was home to both aircraft and in the base’s former seaplane days, these dissimilar aircraft operated from the same station but in two geographically separated locales. Reason: Whidbey Island’s topography does not allow for a seaplane base and a landplane base in a single location. Therefore, the former is a few miles distant from the latter.

The P5M Marlin, being a straight flying boat (decidedly non-amphibious), won’t be landing at Ault Field anytime soon; it can only gaze down at the runways below. Conversely, the Neptune (also decidedly non-amphibious) would face a similar quandary while flying over the water/runway at the seaplane base.

 VFAW-3 flew the “Ford” from 1956-63. Location is the NAS Whidbey Island airshow in the early 1960’s.

NAS Whidbey Island airshow in the early 1960’s. F-100C’s of the USAF Thunderbirds in background.