Pensacola Aviation Museum (non specific but includes P-40, early Grumman biplanes, N1K1, Bearcat, F7F, PB2Y and others)

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-Is that B-24 turret from a PB4Y or one of the late marks B-24?
-The Curtiss trainer is a "Falcon" SNC-1
-RE: getting on base. Check the Museum website https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/ for the proper gate address. The museum directions from I-10 are a pain but from US 98 the entrance was well marked the last time I was there.
-The website has a really interesting virtual tour.
-If you go, and have some time, check out the museum library. They have some great books from the "Golden Age" worth perusing.
 

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Absolutely my favorite museum . . . I've some things I've earmarked to go to them "when I'm done with them" artifacts, original documents, stuff I am sure absolutely certain no one else, even the USN, has . . . for example, side panels from a VF-11 F4F-4 of the Guadalcanal 1943 vintage (see my avatar).

Do they still have the wood panels from the von Tempsky house on Maui? Last I saw them they were somewhere on the left after you enter . . . all those signatures from WW2 naval aviators, my father's was on one of the left hand panels.
 
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I don't know about the turret, there were actually two turrets on display, here is the other one:



That ball-turret looked really, really small and cramped. And especially scary since I know what used to sometimes happen if the hydraulics went out on a mission...
 
Sure thing. Recommend a visit to that place, I've been to many aircraft museums and parks but this one was definitely next level. I'm not sure how many of those carriers they had but it must have been at least a dozen of them. 8 or 9 right by the front door (to the left) and then another 4 or 5 scattered around the main building. I didn't even have time to go to the second building yet but will go back again one day.
 
I grew up about 2 miles as the crow flies from the museum. As a child, I used to run scared from the yellow SNJs flying overhead in the landing pattern. We also watched the Blue Angels practice from my back yard, all the way back to when they were flying F9F Cougars. They also flew right over the house when landing. I remember when the museum was nothing more than a shack with the D-558-1 Skystreak parked outside. Great airshows! I grew up on Naval aviation, knew all their aircraft from WW2 onward. And, because a Naval Flight Surgeon failed to sign my physical, I ended up flying for the Air Force. Worked out good for me, though. Got to fly two great aircraft, the T-38 and the C-141, and picked up a wife of 48 years.

I believe the Dauntless aircraft shown participated in the Battle of Midway.

The best museum from a presentation stand point. Smithsonian has the most famous of the aircraft (like the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis, etc.) and the AF museum has more variety, as you would expect, (including the very C-141 I had flown once. It was the one that brought the prisoners home from N. Vietnam.) But the presentation at the Naval Museum is outstanding.
 
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