Raise one for Flora-bama Pat

If you spent more than 30 seconds involved in Naval Aviation in and around Pensacola for the past 40 years, you know of the Flora-bama, a (formerly) tiny (formerly) biker bar on the Florida/Alabama Gulf Coast line between Orange Beach and Perdido Key. Purchased by Pat McClellan in 1984, the hole-in-the-wall honky tonk bar had a transformation and became nearly infamous for its events such as the “Inter-State Mullet Toss” and New Year’s “Polar Bear Dip,” while, alternating with McGuires in P-Cola proper, becoming a Mecca for young naval aviators, who had a habit of returning when they came back as an instructor, then circling back around once after they retired. Pat has a lot to do with that. A University of Minnesota (NROTC ’71) alum, Pat went through the Navy Flight Program and ended up spending four years on the Blue Ghost, Pensacola’s own USS Lexington (AVT-16), as PAO back once upon a time when studs pulled their first traps on T-2C Buckeyes. Quick with a joke and a little rough…