Commissioned on April 1, 1943, Naval Air Station Wildwood trained thousands of U.S. Navy airmen during World War II. Located in southern New Jersey on a peninsula bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, the air station was perfectly sited to provide them with the over-water practice they needed for fighting the Japanese fleet in the western Pacific theater. Some of the war's most lethal bombers-Helldivers and TBM-3E Avengers among them-were flown by members of naval fighter, dive-bombing, and torpedo-bombing squadrons based at the station from 1943 until 1945. At least 42 airmen lost their lives while training at the station, but their deaths brought about improvements in airplane design and tactics. Today only a handful of the station's 126 original buildings remain; the largest of these, Hangar No. 1, has been restored to its original appearance and houses Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum.

The US Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May tells the story of the Center from Navy Section Base 9 to the only recruit training center in the US. Commissioned as Navy Section Base 9 in 1917, the US Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May stands on the site of a former amusement park that bordered the Atlantic Ocean a few miles east of Cape May in southern New Jersey. Dirigibles, submarines, and minesweepers were based here during World War I. Because of its proximity to the ocean and Delaware Bay, the base was used by Coast Guard patrol boats and cutters to chase rumrunners during Prohibition in the 1920s. An airfield was established adjacent to the base in 1926, and in 1940, both combined to become Naval Air Station Cape May. The station protected the coast line from German U-boats during World War II. The Coast Guard took over the facility in 1946, and in 1948, the base became the only recruit training center in the country, today graduating more than 4,000 recruits per year.

Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island in Washington State has a long and storied history that began in 1942 and continues to the present day. Tucked away on an island that is its namesake, NAS Whidbey was originally conceptualized as a small support base for an existing air station in nearby Seattle. That prewar plan was rapidly eclipsed by world events, and the proposed support base quickly evolved into an air station of its own right. Through historic photographs chosen from the archives of the US Navy, the PBY-Naval Air Museum, and the personnel of NAS Whidbey Island, both past and present, the story of the air station is told. These images will serve not only as a trip down memory lane for those stationed at Whidbey in days gone by, but will also illustrate to younger generations their connection to those who served in the not so distant past.

New Jersey's historic Cape May County, on a peninsula situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay, was named for Cornelis Mey (later May), a Dutch captain who sailed past her shores in the early 1600s. English-speaking whalers and farmers from New England settled here in the late 1600s, buying large tracts they called plantations. Shipbuilding became an important industry in the 19th century, employing hundreds who crafted sloops and schooners used for coastal trading. Although Cape Island (now Cape May City) was advertised in the late 1700s as a popular, healthy place for sea bathing, the barrier islands remained largely uninhabited until train service from Philadelphia was established in 1863. With thousands of visitors arriving daily by rail during the summer season, the seaside resorts of Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Strathmere, Avalon, Stone Harbor, and the Wildwoods blossomed. Today, tourism is the county's largest industry, as vacationers enjoy both its 30 miles of beaches and the mainland's quaint historic villages.