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1986 to 2016: The AMC Museum turns 30

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- In 1986, Ronald Reagan was President, a gallon of gas cost only 89 cents, the Iran-Contra Affair was all over the news and the Dover Air Force Base Historical Center came into humble existence.

Boasting a collection of more than 35 aircraft, a staff of more than 180 volunteers and an overall experience that rivals all other military museums, the ever-growing Air Mobility Command Museum, the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to military airlift and air refueling, celebrated its 30th Anniversary with the Festival of Flight over the weekend of Sept. 23-25, 2016.

“This is the 30th Anniversary of our museum; it goes all the way back to 1986,” said Retired Lt. Gen. William Welser III, former 436th Airlift Wing commander and current friend of the museum. “So, it’s an opportunity to share with the community the heritage that has been not only here at Dover Air Force Base, but throughout Air Mobility Command.”

The celebration kicked off Friday night with the Festival of Flight Exclusive Party and Raffle. This fundraiser, which was organized by the AMC Museum Foundation, was attended by more than 250 people and raised about $20,000 for the foundation. These funds will be reinvested into the museum to be used for future and ongoing projects.

Saturday and Sunday saw more than 20 of the museum’s aircraft opened and available for tours, reenactors, food vendors and other special guests. The base supported Saturday’s festivities by making available an operational C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17A Globemaster III static display, open for tours to anyone visiting.

“I would say that we are one of the few museums in the world that allow you to get close to the airplanes, to get into the airplanes, to touch the airplanes,” said Stephanie Garber, AMC Museum Foundation board member and museum volunteer. “You can see bullet holes in some of them. It really makes understanding airplanes that much easier and fun. I know my kids love coming out here, being able to climb into the cockpit of a C-5 and being able to see how it works. It’s a really great history lesson.”

Al Evans, who travelled from his Newark, Delaware, home to the museum for the Festival of Flight was a first time visitor.

“We’ve been wanting to get down here for a while,” he said. “We’ve just never been able to do it before. I’m glad we came, it’s fantastic. My grandson loves it. He’s in his own little world right now exploring the planes.”

In all, it is estimated that more than 5,000 visited the AMC Museum during the Festival of Flight.

But you may ask, how did all of this start?

The AMC Museum had humble begins and can trace its roots back to 1978 when Dover AFB’s Reserve unit, the 512th AW, began a pet project in an effort to bring positive attention as a recruiting tool. The project was the restoration of the World War II-era B-17G Flying Fortress, named “Shoo Shoo Baby.” This project was a great success, materializing in the complete restoration of the aircraft. In 1988, “Shoo Shoo Baby” flew under its own power to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson, AFB, Ohio, for permanent display. But this left Dover AFB without a historic aircraft.

That is when it all started with one wrecked plane.

According to Mike Leister, AMC Museum director, the Dover Air Force Base Historical Center started with only 20 feet of space in one of the maintenance hangars with an airplane that nobody else wanted.

The airplane Leister spoke of was a C-47A Skytrain, "Turf and Sport Special," that was considered beyond salvageable. Found in a dump near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the aircraft, which had been used for target practice, was airlifted by a Pennsylvania National Guard helicopter to Dover AFB. This is the first aircraft that was restored for the newly conceptualized museum that would form here.

From this point, the museum began to grow. But it took a few years for the museum to end up at its current home, Hangar 1301.

“When I was the wing commander here in ’92 through ’94, we loved the museum, but it was in an old, old facility,” said Welser. “It could have been such a showplace, so we took a look at not only providing some funding, but also how we could project it into the future so it would be here for people in future generations.”

However at that time, Welser was attempting to tear down the aged and dilapidated airplane hangar. Many thought it was beyond repair. But because of its historic provenance, the state of Delaware would not allow it.

“It was the only remaining World War II hangar left in the state,” said Welser. “The state historic preservation organization denied us tearing it down.”

This left Welser with two problems. On one hand, he needed to do something with the deteriorating hangar, and on the other hand, he wanted help expand the base’s museum. That’s when it hit him.

“So, sitting at dinner one night, I was thinking on how we were going to tear down this building, because we have to clean up our base,” said Welser. “Well, if they won’t let me tear it down, maybe they’ll pay to restore it and we can put the museum there.”

This proposal was sent to the state of Delaware and to AMC, and it was approved by both.

“They gave us money, and now we have what we have today,” Welser said.

Over the years, the museum has changed and grown. Conceptualized as the Dover Air Force Base Historical Center on Oct. 13, 1986, it was originally housed in maintenance hangars within the main area of the base. It was officially recognized with museum status in 1995 and moved to its current location in 1996. On Feb. 5, 1997, AMC officially renamed the Dover Air Force Base Museum as the AMC Museum. It has grown from that one wrecked plane to a well-respected institution with a collection of more than 30 aircraft, hundreds of other artifacts and countless programs.

Today, the primary mission of the AMC Museum is to collect, preserve and exhibit the artifacts and human stories significant to the development and employment of military airlift and refueling in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Force. The second closely aligned mission is to portray the rich history of Dover AFB and its predecessor, the Dover Army Airfield. The museum makes this history available and attractive to both civilian and military personnel, so that in an increasingly complex society, the roles of total force, veterans, operations and equipment is understood and appreciated for their value to the nation.

Thirty years ago, nobody could have imaged what the museum would eventually become, especially Leister, who has been with the museum since its birth.

“I had a good idea that if things worked out, in 25 years we would have 20 to 25 airplanes,” said Leister. “I never thought that we would continue to this size, but this museum, the AMC Museum, has become the number one collection of airlift and air refueling airplanes in the country; that’s pretty cool.”

What does the future have in store for the museum?

“We have an airplane in this museum that flew 60 years to the day of the Wright brothers’ first flight, so they went from bamboo and bailing wire, to a four engine swept wing transoceanic airplane that can carry cargo,” said Leister. “I have no idea where things are going to be 30 years from now.”

But Leister does have one wish for the future and posterity.

“I do hope one thing,” he said. “Computers and the internet are great. You can pull up the dimensions of an airplane, you can read what it was made of and who flew it, but until you actually stand in front of one of them, it doesn’t sink into a lot of people. So, we are always going to need three dimensional artifacts for people to come see.”

The museum is always looking forward, seeking ways to expand and offer better programs and exhibits to the public.

“You can really stagnate and just think it’s wonderful, but the fact is, there’s just so much more that can be seen about our heritage,” said Welser.

There are also plans for additional aircraft to join the collection.

“We’ve got two airplanes in the mix right now that are going to be world class airplanes - one is the oldest tanker in the world, and the other is a real Korean War hero, because it dropped the bridge sections to the Marines,” said Leister. “This is the kind of provenance you really die for in an artifact-based museum, and now that we are respected amongst the museum community, these kinds of things come to us.”

One important fact cannot be and should not be undervalued, the volunteers who have made all of this possible.

“I want to reiterate again, we couldn’t do this without the all the volunteers who give their time for free, because we have a seven day a week operation,” Leister said. “We restore and maintain all these airplanes and exhibits, and it’s just incredible that we have people that will come do that.”

For those wishing to visit, the AMC Museum is located at 1301 Heritage Rd., Dover AFB, Delaware 19902. Access to the museum is not available from Dover AFB; the museum has its own entrance gate on Delaware Route 9, exit 91 on Delaware Route 1. Admission and parking are both free, and the museum is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The museum is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

“I would hope that the community, the industry and the people in the Air Mobility Command would embrace this for what it really is, for the wonderful gem it really is, and that we’d be able to get the support and funding for them to expand and preserve what we have here at Dover, Delaware,” Welser said.