News & Events

Barksdale museum association holds planning session

This is an architectual rendering of what a propsed global airpower museum at Barksdale Air Force Base could look like. / 8th Air Force Museum Association

Written by
John Andrew Prime
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Featured in the August 21 issue of the Shreveport Times

About three dozen local Air Force boosters, including top leadership, elected officials and a handful of national experts, met most of the day Saturday at Shreveport's Petroleum Club to plot strategy.

It wasn't about an airstrike in some far corner of the world or an adventure that could light up CNN or the Drudge Report.

But their goal was to effect a rescue of sorts: planning for fundraising and the future of the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base.

The museum, founded more than 30 years ago and caretaker of rare airplanes that include B-24, B-17, B-29, B-52, FB-111 and British Vulcan bombers, faces an uncertain future as a major review looms. Plans are afoot to rebrand it as a global airpower museum, possibly strip it of some of its airplanes and move it to a new site on the bomber base's northern edge.

But the brainstorm session, organized by the new leadership of the 8th Air Force Museum Association, followed "the best defense is a good offense" rationale and focused on boosting community presence and support, thoughts on fundraising and expanding the museum's educational footprint locally and regionally and planning for "down the road" when it could occupy a key site near Interstate 20 more readily accessible to the public and less restrictive than its current site near sensitive operational areas on Barksdale, one of the nation's key bomber bases.

"It's never going to happen if there isn't a 'wow' (factor)," said museum planning and fundraising consultant Andy Bro of the Illinois-based Prentice Co. He was one of the meeting's keynote speakers. "That 'wow' thing has to happen in a major way."

That happened at the skull session when architect Wayne Estopinal showed conceptualizations of what the museum could become if it moves to a site on the north side of the base, near its planned new gate connecting to I-20 and I-220.

The structure, seen as a glassy, spacious and almost aerodynamic structure that could house the threatened airplanes away from weather, could be up to 148,000 square feet in size and hold meeting rooms, dining facilities, classrooms, an auditorium and a theater, as well as space for static and suspended aircraft displays. The estimated cost is $15 million or more, which would have to be raised by the association and partners it could enlist.

"(There has to be) some impact that is rich enough to say, 'This is what our town can do, our community, our state,'" Bro said. "There has to be reach to it. It's not just 'where we park the airplanes.' You need the 'visitor experience.'"

The group also got some pointers from retired Air Force Col. Pat Bartness, the president and chief operating officer of the Museum of Aviation Foundation, which supports the air museum at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. It is considered one of the most successful field museums of the National Museum of the Air Force system. Base leadership on hand included Air Force Global Strike Command head Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski and 2nd Bomb Wing commander Col. Tim Fay. A sprinkling of retired base officers leavened a group of local civic and business leaders that included, briefly, Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover and several of his top staffers and state Reps. Jane Smith and Henry Burns.

Retired 8th Air Force commander Bob Elder, a retired three-star general, is the architect of the service's approach to cyber warfare, which led to the creation here of the National Cyber Research Park and the Cyber Innovation Center, whose campus would be just north across I-20 from the planned museum site. He summarized the importance of Barksdale that should be a focus of the revamped museum.

"This (should be) a place you can come to make you think not (just) about air power, but national security," he said.

"You want this to be bigger than just air power and (the) Air Force. There's a history (at Barksdale) that goes back to World War II, that embodies the old Strategic Air Command, the 8th Air Force, 2nd Bomb Wing. That whole piece is huge. ...

"This is one of the few places where you can see in one place, the tactical application of aviation, the operational application of air power and a major command to see how it ties into national security. This museum is an opportunity to tie all of those pieces together, which is not done anywhere else."

Summer and Fall News and Event Updates - 2011

1ST ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT AND DINNER GALA EVENT

The 8th Air Force Museum Association will be holding its 1st Annual Charity Golf Event followed by a Dinner Gala Event, on October 21st and 29th, respectively. Please join us Friday afternoon on the course with our Four Man Scramble golf tournament for fun, food, and prizes! Follow up by joining us on Saturday night for an elegant and prestigious dinner event, including guest speakers, vision discussion for the museum's future, and a silent auction as well. We need your support, so please join us for a fun weekend! Click here to download the brochure or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

GUN RAFFLE

We are conducting a Gun Raffle which includes a "Two Chance to Win Per Ticket" Drawing. You can have a chance to win a custom AR-15 & a RUGER 10/22 Rifle (Built by Patrick's Gun Shop). The drawing will be held on the evening of October 29th. Need not be present to when. If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

8th Air Force Museum hopes to rebrand, rebuild

Senior Airman Steve O'Brien, a firefighter with the 2nd Bomb Wing Fire Department, takes a walk with his son Aidan through the 8th Air Force Museum airpark at Barksdale Air Force Base in a Times file photo. Dedicated in 1979, the museum is visited by 50,000 visitors annually. It is now trying to rebrand itself to keep up with leaner budgets and changes in the profile of its host base. / Staff Sgt. Samuel Rogers/Special to The Times

Written by
John Andrew Prime
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Featured in the July 27 issue of the Shreveport Times

Barksdale Air Force Base's 8th Air Force Museum is bracing for changes.

One of only 12 Air Force Field Museums, it is home to 28 aircraft and 120 displays and is visited by 50,000 people a year, but with its nonprofit support group, the 8th Air Force Museum Association, must adjust to changes, in part forced by an adverse review by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in 2008.

"The national museum identified as a necessity that we rebrand," 2nd Bomb Wing Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Mike Thompson said at the Association's July meeting last week. "We've been going back and forth on a final, actual name. It will be along the lines of 'Global Power Museum,' but there's been discussion on whether the 'Barksdale' will be incorporated into the name"

Any new name must be approved by Air Force Global Strike Command head Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski and will hopefully be selected in time for an Aug. 20 by-invitation brainstorming meeting at the Petroleum Club in Shreveport, he said.

As reported by The Times in 2008, the negative review warned that several of the museum's airplanes, including its rare B-24, B-17 and B-29, might be sent to museums where they could be indoors. The adverse review also said the museum's British Vulcan bomber, one of only a handful in existence and a gift from Her Majesty's government, might be scrapped.

"Of the 21 different wing agencies that I oversee, (Col. Tim Fay, 2nd BW commander) asks about the museum the most and wants inputs and updates on what's happening more than any of the others," Thompson said. "He's very interested and committed to everything that's going on down here. We briefed Lt. Gen. Kowalski three times on what our plan is down here, what support we need from his command and his staff. I've got a lot of faith we're going to see some commitment."

The museum is pursuing a $3 million grant through the Air Force to renovate its current building just inside the base's North Gate. It now operates on a $36,000 annual budget from 2nd Bomb Wing.

"We've asked for an annual maintenance contract of about $250,000 that will go specifically to exterior aircraft displays for washing (and) painting," Thompson said.

The wing also has asked for permission to shed some nonairplane outdoor displays, such as an airplane tug and firetruck. "Everything sitting out there has a price tag," he said, adding that can be as much as $15,000 a year per item for maintenance, painting and sheet metal work.

Museum Director Gary Miller noted a recent $10,000 donation from Willis-Knighton Health System has greatly benefited the museum's B-17 bomber.

"We're trying to turn it into a nonflying classroom. Our hope is some day you can actually get into it, and (we) can start talking about what 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids experienced over Germany at 35,000 feet in fleece-lined jackets. It will take them back into history, so to speak."

The museum faces a new inspection in November.

"Behind the scenes, we're spending a lot of time starting to go through the paper chase of what do we have, things we're not in compliance with and trying to fix those," Miller said.

The August meeting will include discussion of an enlarged association board, a new board of advisers, redesign of the museum website and building membership and a volunteer base.

New Association President Terry Snook said it also will be "a planning meeting to set in motion a way to raise some funds to redo this building and eventually down the road to move out to where the new gate will be. It's the beginning of what will be a multiyear process. Hopefully, we'll lay the groundwork properly."