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Heritage activities offer chance to volunteer

  • Published
  • AFMC History Office Report
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio --  Have some spare time on your hands? Want to give back to the Air Force community? The heritage activities in Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) are looking for volunteers to help support museum operations.

In addition to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, AFMC has 14 heritage activities spread over 11 bases. Activities include field museums, heritage centers, airparks, and historical holdings- each of which offers the opportunity for volunteers.

Volunteers do everything from greeting and guiding visitors to restoring aircraft. All four of the field museums, located at Edwards AFB, Eglin AFB, Hill AFB, and Robins AFB, operate dynamic and educational programs that serve the local public and private school systems. Volunteers help with student groups, teaching the fundamentals of flight, and talking to them about the aerospace career field. Other volunteer opportunities include helping with collections management, working in the reference library, or washing and painting aircraft. Below are brief descriptions of the four field museums accepting volunteers:

· Edwards AFB, CA home to the mission of flight test since the 1950's, hosts the AF Flight Test Museum. The names of famous pilots and planes resonate throughout the museum, such as the X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager and the XB-49 flown by Glenn Edwards, namesake of the base.

· Eglin AFB, FL is home of the Air Armament Museum. The museum displays the history of the development of bombs and missiles. One of its newest additions is the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "Mother Of All Bombs" and weighing in at 21,000 lbs.

· The mission of Hill AFB, UT's Aerospace Museum is to portray the history of Hill AFB, Utah, through a collection of aviation artifacts. The museum hosts nearly 90 static display aircraft and offers a variety of opportunities for volunteers to handle their "care and feeding."

· The Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB, GA is the second largest Air Force museum (after the National Museum of the USAF.) The museum's newest exhibit, which recently won a 2009 Air Force Heritage Award, is titled "Down to Earth: the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the Air Invasion of Normandy."

Additional AFMC field heritage activities are located at Hanscom AFB, MA; Holloman AFB, NM; Kirtland AFB, NM; and Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. To find out more about these and other heritage activities AFMC has to offer, visit the bases' public websites, or contact Ms. Laura Romesburg at 937-257-3279 or DSN 787-3279.