Our Trip to Opening Day
The Mighty Eighth Heritage Museum
May 14, 1996
Actual opening day was held on May 13, but the ceremony was limited to Eighth
Air Force veterans, which seemed fair to us. On the 14th, the Warmonger
and I headed out to the public opening. Construction was still going on, and
parking was primitive. The museum is actually in Pooler, Georgia and
the Pooler Police were keeping things organized. We passed the Chief of Police,
and I asked if I was in danger of being arrested for contributing to
truancy, since school was still in session. He seemed to think the Warmonger was
safe for a day. We'll just call him the Eighth Grade Air Force.
We were more interested in the flyovers than the speechifying,
so looked for a spot with a good view. We soon picked out a VIP location
(Very Impressive Pile of dirt) and climbed up on top.
We could just barely hear the various mayors and generals who spoke, but
had a good view of an Air Guard pickup parked next to us. It was
covered with antennae and the crew had binoculars. We cleverly waited until
they started milling about, then looked where they were looking. Sure enough,
here came the B-17.
As the plane came around, I told the Warmonger not to shoot
directly into the sun, since it would mess up the picture.
"OK", he said - Click!
>
Here's a picture of us and our observation post. Autographed posters
will soon be available.
After the ribbon was duly cut and the flyovers done,
we made it into the museum.
The place was packed, mostly with authentic Mighty Eighth Veterans
wearing old leather jackets and running around slapping each other
on the back.
We realized it was still their day, not ours. Since we live only 20
minutes away, we decided to continue the tour in a few weeks, in a
less hectic situation.
We did take a crowd picture to show you, although the bright Georgia sun
and all those windows confused our semi-intelligent camera.
And we did go back:
Come with us to page II.
Back to the Mighty Eighth Heritage Museum Page
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