PENSACOLA -- A group of British World War II military pilots, now in their 70s and 80s, reminisced Tuesday about learning to fly at Pensacola Naval Air Station when they were ''young and very keen.''
''It was quite pleasant, actually, lots of food and no bombs dropping,'' recalled John Bailey, originally from England and now living in Toronto, Canada.
Bailey was among about 4,000 pilots from Britain and British Commonwealth countries who trained here during the war.
Only about 800 are still alive, said Pat Fry, of Brighton, deputy leader of the British Pensacola Veterans, this week holding what may be one of its last reunions.
The 65 participants, including spouses, are the smallest number since the reunions began in 1975 at intervals ranging from two to six years.
At a prior reunion, the British veterans dedicated a stone marker in front of their former barracks, now the base headquarters building. On Tuesday, they presented Capt. Randal Bahr, the base commander, with a nine-inch bronze figure of a Royal Air Force pilot that will be mounted atop the monument.
Fry recalled that the British flight students were made to feel at home.
''It was brilliant, because we were accepted as American cadets were, taught exactly the same feats they were taught,'' Fry said. ''There was no discrimination.''
Sam Tweedie, of Norfolk, said their Pensacola training stood them well although they had to relearn navigation ''the RAF way.''
''The main difference was going back to a wartime situation,'' Tweedie said. ''There were no shortages of anything here, as far as I could see. When you went back to England you went back to British wartime rations.''
Frank Robinson, originally from Manchester but now living with his American wife, Elizabeth, in Lakewood, N.J., was in the first British group in 1941 before the United States entered the war.
''The Pensacola training was responsible for us being here today, it was so good,'' he said. ''We had all the advantages of their peacetime training. We put in many, many more hours than our equivalent colleagues in the Royal Air Force who trained in, say, South Africa or Canada.''
''We were young and very keen,'' said Jim Blaikie, of London. ''We turned schoolboys into men.''
Blaikie said learning to fly in the United States was more advanced because students went on to operational training in Miami after receiving their wings at Pensacola. In England, training stopped after pilots got their wings, he said.
Prior to flight school here, the British students received preliminary training at Grosse Ile, Mich., near Detroit. That's where Don Bleach of Lincolnshire met his wife, Gerry, although they were not married until five years ago.
They lost touch after he left Pensacola in 1943. Both married others and each had three children. Years later, both were widowed.
After his first wife died, Bleach, who had kept Gerry's letters, told a friend about her. The friend suggested he find her. All Bleach had was the address of her parents' home in Michigan.
The present owner, however, helped locate her in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Bleach called from England.
''I knew who it was right away, of course, with that accent,'' she said. ''It took about 18 months of his convincing and we met at the airport. I flew off with him and came to England.''
