While in Ohio visiting Bill’s parents we
spent a day at the National
Museum of the United
States Air Force.
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| (picture from the web) |
The museum, located northeast
of Dayton at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is the world’s largest military aviation
museum. Bill had been many times before, but this was our first time seeing the
newly-opened Fourth
Building and the first
time taking a tour. In fact we took two tours.
Our first tour was a special
treat. We targeted going to the museum on the day that Jerry would be giving
tours because Jerry, a former air force pilot, is a good friend of Bill’s
parents. We so enjoyed Jerry’s explanations, anecdotes, extensive knowledge,
and joyful presence. We were blown away by all the information he knew on each plane
– and of course there are hundreds of planes.
This particular tour covered
the Early Years and World War II galleries.
Our second tour was in the Fourth Building
that just opened last month. The 224,000 square foot hanger houses space
vehicles like a Titan missile & shuttle replica, cargo planes, all sorts of
experimental aircraft, and, Barbara’s favorite, Presidential planes. Most of
this collection had been displayed in a hanger on the base that required taking
a shuttle bus, but now it’s just another building of the museum.
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| Kennedy's Air Force One |
We only spent a little time
in the other two buildings. Here is Bill in front of a SR-71 Blackbird.
While we were looking at
their replica of a missile launch room and comparing it to the real one we
toured two years ago we met a former missileer.
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|
Missile launch rooms:
2016 Ohio museum’s replica (left),
2014 South Dakota actual launch room (right)
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One final word about Jerry. His
son is a missionary in Hungary
and was the guest preacher at Bill’s parents’ church. He sounded just like
Jerry and gave an interesting message on his church’s response to the refugee
crisis.
