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 February 2011
Mission Update! News from the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum |
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175 Bourne Ave
Pooler, GA 31322
912.748.8888
Open daily 9:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m.
(Closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas) |
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Super Museum Sunday
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Sunday February 6, 2011
Super Museum Sunday is right around the corner, we can't wait to see you there! Admission to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum is FREE all day. Bring the whole family to Super Museum Sunday, where you are sure to enjoy a tour of the Museum.
Dr. Annette Laing will be signing her books "Don't Know Where Don't Know When and "A Different Day A Different Destiny" in the Museum Gift Store from 11-3.
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Bunking In!
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A Night at the Museum
Experience the Museum at night with a unique tour by Rosie the Riveter, learn techniques of a bombing mission, explore the combat gallery by flashlight and relax while watching a movie before bedtime.
For more information please contact Heather Thies or visit our website www.mightyeighth.org
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The Safe House
by Edward Kendall
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The Safe House
A World War II Story
by Edward Lynd Kendall
The "Safe House" is based in part on the experience of his friend, Mel Simmons, who was a pilot on a B-24 in the Eighth Air Force. This work is a fictionalized account of his experience.
Shop Online
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Mighty 8th Volunteer Re-enlists
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On January 21, 2011, E4 Specialist Peter Balsom re-enlisted in the Army for another five years. He is an unmanned aircraft system operator, 15W, in the Unit Alpha Company 224 in the Military Intelligence Battalion. Captain Bandy conducted the re-enlistment ceremony here at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum outside the Nissan Hut of the mission experience. Specialist Balsom is originally from Dayton, Ohio and currently is stationed at Hunter Army Airfield here in Savannah, GA. Peter is a mission experience volunteer here at the museum.
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Make your Donation Count!
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Would you like to make your donation to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum work harder? If your company has a matching gift program, you can double the impact of your contribution. Matching your gift is simple; ask your human resources department if your company has a matching gift program. Most companies have a short form you need to complete and send in with your donation. That's all there is to it! The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum will do the rest.
For a list of Matching Gift Companies |
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Join Today!
| Become a member of one of the world's most powerful Museums.
If you are passionate about America, if you believe that preserving traditions, loyalty, democracy, and freedom is more important than ever, and if you appreciate the sacrifice of the men and women who continue to defend our freedom today, then you need to become a member of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum today!
For more information and to join, please click on the link below
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Museum Staff
Brenda Elmgren
Director of Development
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Upcoming Features!
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Be sure to see our next edition of the "Mission Update!" online newsletter for the latest news, "What's New in the Archives", "World War II Memorial Updates", and much more.
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Follow us!
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View past Newsletters!
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| Museum Gift Store |
We will be celebrating "Georgia Days" from February 6th through the 12th.
"Georgia Days" is kicked off with Super Museum Sunday. On February 6th admission to the Museum will be free. Annette Lainge, author of "Don't Know Where, Don't Know When" will be in the Museum Store to sign her book from 11am-3pm. Annette has done book signings for us before and they are always great fun! Annette interacts with the children and gives them the details of her book. You won't want to miss this opportunity.
During the week of our "Georgia Days" celebrations (February 6-12), shop online and get 10% off T-shirts and Hats (excludes 10% off $50 or more purchase special). This would be a great time to stock up or give your special Valentine a new shirt or hat. Use Coupon Code "GEORGIADAYS" for discount.
 Coming soon will be new Spotter Card coffee mugs. They are terrific complete with information on your favorite plane. We will be getting in some new
1000 piece puzzles. Choose from WWII War Planes, Rosie the Riveter or
Helicopters.
During the month of February we are continuing our special 10% off $50 or more
purchase. So whether you choose our "Georgia Days" Special or 10% off
$50 or more, you can save during the month of February.
Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum Online Store
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Restoration Project Update
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The B-17 Restoration Project is steadily moving forward. The crew is working on rewiring the aircraft to enable the radios, bomb bay doors, navigation and landing lights, and eventually several of the turrets, to function as part of our B-17's display in the Museums Combat Gallery.
The goal of our restoration is to have the B-17, "City of Savannah" restored to its original factory condition. You can be a part of history and the Museum's B-17 Project. The Museum appreciates all financial gifts, and for $100 or more you will receive a certificate of participation, suitable for framing, which recognizes your part in this historic Museum event. Please make checks payable to "B-17 Project" and mail to:
Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum
P.O. Box 1992
Savannah, GA 31402
If you would like to make a donation by credit card, please call Tameka Ford at
912-748-8888 ext. 101.
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Museum Update
Henry Skipper
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 I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your great support in 2010. Your support allowed us to accomplish the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of the year.
Our goals for 2011 are very ambitious, but we are confident again with your support, that we will accomplish a great deal this year. We are in the process of designing an impressive upgrade to the POW exhibit. We will begin the design of the ground crew exhibit which will incorporate the area around the control tower and the B-17, both located in the Combat Gallery. In addition to upgrades and additional exhibits we will, with proper funding, enhance our group cases with fiber optic lighting and upgrade the equipment used with our Mission Experience to make this popular exhibit better and more reliable. We are moving forward with the B-17 restoration and are at the stage where most of the prep work is complete and the real restoration work on the inside and outside will begin. We are trying to acquire many of the items, some of which are very expensive, that will bring the airplane up to its combat configuration. We need your support to keep this process going. We have just received, on loan from the U.S. Army, a fully restored 1941 Fire Truck that served in Savannah at Hunter Army Airfield during WWII. It will make a beautiful addition to the Museum's Combat Gallery. Our "Character Counts" education initiative is moving forward and now is a part of the curriculum in the Savannah Chatham County school system. We will grow this program as we acquire the funds necessary to do so.
We are going to be very busy this year. We have set an aggressive agenda. Our dedicated staff will not only be working on these new projects but will be working hard to keep up with the routine challenges we face every day.
Again, thank you for your past support. Please continue to help us preserve the great legacy of the Mighty Eighth remind future generations the sacrifices made to keep us free.
Send your tax deductable contribution to:
The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum
P.O. Box 1992
Savannah, GA, 31402
And please keep the legacy alive by remembering us in your will.
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Museum Volunteer Bill Murdock
by Heather Thies
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Bill Murdock
 Bill Murdock was born and raised in Boston. He graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Physics and then began working for Pratt & Whitney as an experimental engineer. He was hired for their nuclear powered airplane project which was cancelled almost as soon as he started working for them. Pratt & Whitney kept him in the nuclear division but eventually transferred him to the jet engine development division. Bill spent a lot of time working with airframe companies such as Boeing, Gulfstream, Douglas and Airbus. However, he spent the majority of his time in flight test programs with Boeing. After his retirement, Bill and his wife Helen moved to Savannah in July 2000. He started volunteering at the Mighty Eighth in 2001 after his former boss, Howard Stryker, a museum volunteer, told him about the volunteer program. Bill volunteers in the Mission Experience, tour guides for adult and student groups and teaches the Science of Flight program. The Science of Flight program was developed by Dr. Vivian Rogers-Price, who was then the Director of Education, and Howard Stryker to teach the science, mechanics and history of how airplanes achieve and maintain flight. This student program is offered by the Education Department as an optional classroom experience that can be booked in addition to their museum tour. Bill also greets returning soldiers and sees them off overseas as a volunteer for the Red Cross. He is an active member of the Coastal Corvette Association, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Birthplace Chapter of the 8th Air Force Historical Society. Bill is also an avid reader concentrating on aviation, physics, WWII and fiction.
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A Bracelet from Okinawa
by Dr. Vivian Rogers-Price
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In July 1945, several months after the unconditional surrender of Germany, it was announced that the Eighth Air Force would set up future headquarters on Okinawa under the command of Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle. General Doolittle arrived on Okinawa on 16 July 1945. At a 25 July press conference he announced that bombing missions would start in late August. On 30 July Major General Earle E. Partridge and Brigadier General Patrick W. Timberlake joined Doolittle. Upon their arrival General Partridge was named deputy commander while General Timberlake became chief of staff. Except for a few key leaders including both General Doolittle and General Partridge, General Henry H. Arnold had determined that the men who had served in the Eighth Air Force in England should not be redeployed to the Pacific. As a result, most of the air depot units came from India while the bomb and service groups were newly formed in the United States. One of these B-29 crews assigned to the 333rd Bomb Group, 507th Bomb Squadron included John E. Drake who flew as Central Fire Control Gunner. They arrived after the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan and so flew no combat missions. World War II ended on 14 August 1945 with Japan's surrender. The Eighth Air Force, which had successfully carried out a daylight strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany and was poised to do the same over Japan, had completed its fighting mission. As the Eighth Air Force celebrated its fourth anniversary on 28 January 1946, its new responsibility was to preserve peace in the Pacific.
 | | The Bracelet from Okinawa |
John Drake continued to serve on Okinawa and acquired a bracelet made in 1946 by a former Japanese POW. Decorated with an Eighth emblem in the center, it includes distinctly Japanese elements suggesting Mount Fuji, religious buildings and a Samurai Warrior. This bracelet is now part of the John E. Drake Collection in the research center.
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| Feature Exhibit |
U.S. Eighth Army Air Force
BIG WEEK By Museum Volunteer Gary SilverBACKGROUNDIn January 1944, Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle became commander of the Eighth Army Air Force in England. He replaced Gen. Ira Eaker who was transferred to the Mediterranean theater as Allied air operations commander. Doolittle had been Eisenhower's air officer in the North African campaign, and the first commander of the new Fifteenth Air force based in Italy. Earlier, he had become renowned as an aviation pioneer, racing and stunt flier, test pilot, and aviation science innovator - earning a doctorate at MIT in aeronautical engineering. Above all, he was a forceful leader who had become famous for leading our first offensive action of the Pacific war - the bombing raid on Tokyo flown by B-25's off the aircraft carrier Hornet.Read Further
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This Month in 8th Air Force History
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February 1, 1942: WWII: The Command staff of the Eighth Air Force reaches England
February 7, 1943: WWII: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in 2 days.
February 8, 1943: WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal: United States forces defeat Japanese troops.
February 11, 1943: General Eisenhower is selected to command the Allied armies in Europe.
February 20, 1944: "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
February 22, 1944: United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe organized from the Eighth Air Force's strategic planning staff; subsuming strategic planning for all US Army Air Forces in Europe and Africa.
February 4 - 11, 1945: WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.
February 13, 1945: WWII: Royal Air Force bombing of Dresden, Germany.
February 23, 1945: WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima
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'Rags' A 1941 Ford Fire Truck
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In 1941 Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA, included a fire department equipped with two pumpers. One of them was this 1941 Ford Fire Truck that remained at Hunter until 1948. During these seven years changes occurred. From October 1940 to February 1943, this airfield served as a training base for light and medium bombardment groups. The Eighth Air Force, activated on 28 January 1942, spent approximately three months there being equipped prior to shipping out to England. In February 1943 Hunter Field converted to a staging base sending aircraft with crews overseas to combat, including the B-17 Flying Fortress, City of Savannah. Even with the end of World War II this fire truck remained at Hunter, becoming the property of the U.S. Air Force in 1947 when the Air Force became a separate branch of the military. In 1948 this fire truck moved from Hunter to nearby Travis Field and remained there until 1964 when it was purchased as military surplus by the Isle of Hope Volunteer Fire Department located in Savannah, GA. These civilian firemen affectionately called their 1941 fire truck, Rags. Rags served them well and in 2000 they donated this Ford fire truck to the Fort Stewart Museum and the United States Army Center of Military History which has generously loaned Rags for display at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. Today Rags is once again an authentic World War II fire truck.
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Making Your Legacy Last
Brenda Elmgren
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Thanks to everyone who so generously gave to our Winter 2010 fundraising letter. It's one of our major sources of income during the year and your response is very important to the Museum's efforts to honor the past, preserve the Eighth's legacy, and educate future leaders about the sacrifices made by the men and women of the Eighth Air Force, especially during World War II. President Teddy Roosevelt once said,
"We in America do not build monuments to War; We do not build Monuments to conquest; We build monuments to commemorate the spirit of sacrifice in War - Reminders of our desire for Peace."
That's what the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum is all about, but building those monuments, designing, restoring, and maintaining the exhibits, taking care of the library books and the research center, keeping everything clean and orderly, and even raising more money to keep it all going costs money. Your gifts in response to our letters help us continue to memorialize the Mighty Eighth Air Force warriors and heroes.
But did you know there is another way to generously honor those who flew and returned, or maybe those who never came home again? It even makes their legacy of bravery and sacrifice live on far into the future. And it's so simple. You can help the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum with a bequest in your will. We all need a will in these days. Just like the mission flight plans that took the Eighth Air Force into the skies over Europe during the war, a will communicates our instructions to our flight crew as we take our final flight. And with a simple attachment known as a codicil, you can leave a portion of your estate, even a small one, to the Museum to help the work here continue. There is surely no better way to make your own legacy live on than to invest in the  Museum's work to commemorate the spirit of sacrifice and the desire for peace.
Please call Brenda at the Museum at 912-748-8888 Ext. 165 or email her for a sample codicil. That's all you need to leave a bequest to the Museum. It's simple and straightforward. As always, consult your attorney to make sure you get all the "i's" dotted and the "t's" crossed. Since the Museum is a 501(c)(3) charitable entity under the IRS rules, there may even be tax advantages where estate taxes are concerned. Your heirs will really appreciate that!
Thanks again for your sacrifices. They have made a difference.
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Volunteer Hours for 2010
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The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum wishes to thank our volunteers for the countless hours of their personal time they devote to the museum. In 2010, the museum's almost one hundred volunteers donated over 10,000 hours to the museum. These volunteers work as greeters, tour guides, mission experience guides, visitor center docents and library aides. The museum also has about fifty volunteers who donated almost 5,800 hours restoring the B-17 while it is on display in the Combat Gallery. The volunteers help all museum guests leave the museum with an increased knowledge of the Eighth Air Force and a feeling of welcome.
Pictured from the top left: For 2010, Roland Waller volunteered 386 hours, Frank Paro volunteered 550 hours, Sonny Koski volunteered 600 hours and John Telgener volunteered 585 hours.
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| Loss of a dear friend |
 | Guy Earle
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It is with great sadness that we report the loss of Guy Earle.
Guy Earle, Eighth Air Force WWII veteran and long time museum volunteer passed away on December 21, 2010. Guy was born on January 30, 1924, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He flew in WWII as a B-17 navigator with the 545th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force out of England. On April 24, 1944 his B-17 "Frostie" was shot down and crash landed in Switzerland where he was interned for eight months before his eventual escape back to Allied lines. After the war, he remained a member of the Active Reserve and was recalled to service during the Korean War. He served in the U.S. Air Force in the 826th Engineer Aviation Battalion in Alaska before retiring from the military with the rank of Major in 1965. After WWII, Guy graduated from North Carolina State University in 1949 and began work as a soil scientist for the U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service. He later returned to school to earn his M.S. degree from Michigan State University in 1973 and then worked as a staff specialist until he retired in 1980. Guy married his wife Frances in 1945. They have two sons, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild. After Guy and Frances retired to Savannah, Frances' hometown, he became active in the 8th AF Historical Society and the museum. His beloved wife passed away in 1994. Guy was an amazing man and will be missed by all who knew him.
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