For nearly four decades, Trader Jon's was where the men who trained to fly the monster jets of the U.S. Navy let down their hair before going off to fight-and sometimes die-in lonely battles above obscure patches of water and land over Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia. One measure of the Navy's deep regard for Weismann is the singular honor afforded him by the naval air station of naming a runway after him-TRADR-ONE.

Trader Jon's is a biography of the man and the legendary Pensacola, Florida bar.

It was where America's astronauts contemplated their future as they gazed at the time-worn artifacts of the past. Alan Shepard the first American in space and John Glenn the third American to travel in space were frequent visitors to the bar. It was where the famed Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's precision flying team, met each year to induct new members into their ranks. Also among the celebrity Navy pilots who trained in Pensacola was late U.S. Senator John McCain, who was a regular at the bar during his training. He later said: "Trader Jon's was a place where Naval Aviators went to relax, swap stories and enjoy each other's company. I cherish the memories of my time spent there."

It was where nearly every major symbol of the American Dream, including John Wayne, Bob Hope, Henry Fonda, and Elizabeth Taylor, found temporary solace. Artifacts lined the walls, pasted floor to ceiling, along with hundreds of framed photographs of the pilots, astronauts, and movie stars who visited the bar-and from the ceiling hung giant model airplanes, their wings tipped in mock flight as they circled within the soft glow of 25-watt passion lights.

The passion lights were there for the young women who danced topless at the bar at night. Most of the women were local girls just out of their teens, most of whom experienced difficult childhoods or first marriages and sought refuge in Trader Jon's protective atmosphere. The women typically were the same ages of the young sailors who frequented the club. They eased the pain of separation from loved ones and kept the sailors off the street where they were likely to accost local women. Naval purists dismiss the importance of the women to Navy morale, but to do so would be to dismiss the importance of Trader Jon's to the Navy. Those women are an important part of this story.