National Naval Aviation Museum

A letter written in the form of a love story about him and his future wife was one of nearly 200 letters penned by Aviation Machinist's Mate Third Class Vernon Shaw during his service in World War II, including time spent on board the carrier Enterprise (CV 6).  When he finally returned home in 1945, he married Miss Evelyn Holland, beginning over six decades of matrimony

When they launched from the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) on the morning of December 7, 1941, the aviators and aircrewmen flying SBD Dauntless dive bombers could have never imagined that their flights would end in the middle of the Pearl Harbor attack.  Among them was Ensign Walter Willis, who became one of the first naval aviators killed in action during World War II.

On January 14, 1969, during operations in the waters off Hawaii, explosions rocked the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVAN 65), the most tragic of the more than 18,600 days the venerable flattop operated as a U.S. Navy warship.

Artifacts come in all shapes and sizes and are of various contents as far as the material of which they are made. Yet, they are all part of the same fabric, bearing witness to history, tangible links to times past and in some cases a veritable voice about a momentous event in the story of an individual and a nation served. Taken together, they capture the history and heritage of aviation in the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.