The founding group called itself the PBY Memorial Association, named for the Consolidated PBY Catalina, the twin-engine flying boat that defined naval patrol aviation during World War II. PBYs flew from Whidbey Island's seaplane base, hunting submarines and rescuing downed aircrews across the Pacific. The association tried to acquire a PBY in 2002, but the deal fell through. They reorganized as the PBY Memorial Foundation in 2003 and kept searching. In 2010, they finally succeeded, purchasing a PBY-5A Catalina -- Bureau Number 33968 -- and transporting it to the base. The aircraft became the museum's centerpiece, but its location on NAS Whidbey Island created problems: security restrictions at the gate limited public access, making casual visits difficult. The museum spent years working toward a move to a more accessible site.

The museum's evolution tracks the determination of its volunteers. Plans to acquire a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior were cancelled in 2012. A display honoring Navy hospital corpsmen opened in 2013. In 2018, the museum began efforts to relocate what may have been the last surviving Homoja Hut, a prefabricated military housing structure threatened by development. By June 2020, the organization had changed its name to the Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum, reflecting a broader mission that extended beyond the PBY. Construction on a new facility to house the Catalina began in August 2023, and by March 2024 plans were underway to restore the aircraft in preparation for the move. The Gene Guthrie Memorial Library, housed within the museum, preserves documents and photographs from the base's long operational history.

NAS Whidbey Island is the largest naval air station in the Pacific Northwest and the only Navy installation on the West Coast dedicated to electronic warfare. The base has operated continuously since 1942, and the aircraft stationed there have evolved from PBY flying boats through A-3 Skywarriors, A-6 Intruders, and EA-6B Prowlers to the current EA-18G Growler. The museum traces that lineage through its exhibits, which include two flight simulators and a nose turret from a PBY. The organization also owns a scale model of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier that travels to local parades -- a low-tech but effective way to bring aviation history into the community. An annual community luncheon brings together active-duty personnel, veterans, and civilians, reinforcing the connection between the base and the town of Oak Harbor that has grown up around it.

Aviation museums thrive or fade based on their ability to connect artifacts to human stories, and the Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum has an advantage that larger institutions lack: proximity. The planes it commemorates flew from the runways visible through its windows. The veterans who founded it served at the base it sits beside. The Growlers that rattle Oak Harbor's windows every training day are the direct descendants of the Catalinas that once taxied on the same waterfront. When the restored PBY-5A takes its place in the new facility, it will sit a few hundred yards from the seaplane ramps where identical aircraft launched into the Pacific eight decades ago. For a museum built by volunteers on donated time and money, that geographic authenticity is worth more than any endowment.