{"id":3699,"date":"2015-09-14T13:49:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T18:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.15.223.162\/?page_id=3699"},"modified":"2020-10-01T16:10:01","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T21:10:01","slug":"maaf-museum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/?page_id=3699","title":{"rendered":"Midland Army Air Field Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MAAF<\/a><\/h2>\n

OPEN ON SATURDAYS 10 A.M.- 3 P.M.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

AND BY APPOINTMENT FOR GROUPS<\/h3>\n

432-254-6182<\/p>\n

Free Admission and Parking<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9600 Wright Drive, Midland, TX<\/p>\n

(Donations are welcomed)\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n

\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The CAF’s High Sky Wing is proud to announce the development of the Midland Army Air Field (MAAF) Museum. \u00a0We are “open for business”, but are always making adjustments to the gallery spaces within the Main Hangar at the High Sky Wing complex, to exhibit the vast collection of MAAF artifacts and preserve the history of the largest bombardier training school in the nation during World War II. \u00a0Other exhibits \u00a0focus on the impact of West Texans in World War II, like George H.W. Bush. \u00a0Coupled with the large collection of aircraft maintained and operated on the High Sky Wing Campus, the MAAF Museum will provide visitors an opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of 1940’s West Texas via educational exhibits and aircraft rides opportunities. \u00a0The High Sky Wing is excited to help reconnect our communities to the Ghosts of West Texas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"1439989400711\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A peek at some of the museum exhibits.<\/h1>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"DSC_0136\"<\/a> \"DSC_0146\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u00a0MUSEUM UPDATES<\/strong><\/p>\n

June 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

The museum is excited to announce its reopening on June 6, 2020 after a prolonged closure due to the Covid-19 virus. \u00a0We will resume our normal business hours from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm every Saturday. \u00a0Some changes have been made during the shutdown, so come out and see what we have done. \u00a0As always, parking and admission are free.<\/span><\/p>\n

May 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The museum will be hosting our annual Memorial Day Observance on Monday, May 27th, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. \u00a0All exhibits will be open, food vendors will be on site, cockpit tours will be conducted, and airplane rides will be available for sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ceremony will begin at noon with a flag presentation by the Midland High School Air Force JROTC and a fly-over by members of the High Sky Wing. \u00a0This will be followed by our guest speaker, Mr. Bill Womack, who will share his World War II experiences, including his participation in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp.<\/p>\n

February 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

The Museum reported excellent visitor numbers for 2017: \u00a0Total attendance was 4,884 which breaks down to 407 visitors per month, a 15% increase over \u00a02017 numbers. Our guests came from 9 countries, 36 \u00a0states and 121 Texas cities. \u00a0Approximately 55% of our visitors hailed from Texas.<\/p>\n

The Museum staff and all members of the HSW should be proud of this increase. \u00a0It just shows that all the hard work and customer service is paying off. \u00a0While Museum donations are difficult to track, suffice it to say that our visitors have been very generous.<\/p>\n

Lyle Thornton<\/strong> has been tasked with inventory control in the PX, and will begin ordering a resupply of MAAFM shirts and T-shirts very soon. \u00a0In the meantime, we do have a limited number still on the shelves in varying sizes, along with some surplus AIRSHO \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0T-shirts and hats selling for $5.00 each.<\/p>\n

Among our goals this year:<\/p>\n

A) Increase visitor numbers by continuing our good customer service; \u00a0increase the number of school and civic group tours that we conduct. \u00a0We are beginning an outreach program that we hope will result in both greater museum attendance and more off-site presentations.<\/p>\n

B) We will also be expanding our PX, to include clearing out and remodeling the foyer storeroom to convert it to a retail environment. Steve Bolin<\/strong>, Finance Officer, and Michael Clinton<\/strong>, Executive Officer, will be working on developing a Point of Sale program to track inventory and sales.<\/p>\n

C) Add more docents to the Museum staff. \u00a0For information contact: \u00a0Greg Gutting<\/strong> ggutting@52.15.223.162<\/em> or 210-326-5983 (call or text)<\/p>\n

July, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

Docents Greg Gutting, Lyle Thornton<\/b> and H.A. Tuck<\/b> report that MAAFM is improving every week.\u00a0 Not just in exhibits, but also in the gift shop and in the numbers of people that are visiting.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Brent<\/b> and Patti Collins<\/b> for continuing to update our exhibits, by adding contributions from the general public.\u00a0 We seem to get new ones each week.<\/p>\n

Our fledgling gift shop has added a few items in the last month, including some airplane pins, which are well liked by the kids who visit.\u00a0 We are continuing our popular promotion of giving away an F-14 or Air Show book with each $10.00 donation.\u00a0 We are low on tee shirts right now, but have been told that more have been ordered.<\/p>\n

Our future wish list includes enlarging the foyer area to permit a wider variety of items to be displayed and sold.\u00a0 Right now all monies that come in are donations, but the larger we get, the more we will need an accounting and inventory system to track sales, and collect and pay sales taxes.<\/p>\n

We continue to provide weekday group tours:\u00a0 during June Cavazos Elementary in Odessa brought two groups of kids out on separate days, and SHARE, a support group for Dad\u2019s with special needs kids, had their monthly meeting and took a tour.\u00a0 Additionally, several HSW members have conducted private tours for friends or family.<\/p>\n

On June 24, July 1 & 8, we had more than 175 visitors sign our guest book.\u00a0 With the exception of major events like Airsho and Memorial Day, this is probably the largest three day total we have had since our opening.\u00a0 We attribute those numbers to good customer service and word of mouth advertising.<\/p>\n

Visitors to the museum are greeted at the door, if at all possible, and given a brochure and a brief introduction to the museum.\u00a0 If a docent can\u2019t escort them through the museum, one will catch up with them during their visit, explain some of our exhibits, and answer any questions.\u00a0 We like to give at least a \u201cmini-tour\u201d to all visitors, but sometimes, with the volume of visitors we have had, that just isn\u2019t feasible.\u00a0 We could use more docents*<\/span><\/i> <\/b>Special thanks go out to Ralph Gillette<\/b> and Randy Wilson<\/b> for pitching in when we have been short of manpower.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*To volunteer, contact Greg Gutting at ggutting@52.15.223.162 or 210-326-5983 (call or text)<\/address>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OPEN ON SATURDAYS 10 A.M.- 3 P.M. AND BY APPOINTMENT FOR GROUPS 432-254-6182 Free Admission and Parking 9600 Wright Drive, Midland, TX (Donations are welcomed)\u00a0 \u00a0 The CAF’s High Sky Wing is proud to announce the development of the Midland … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3699"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3699"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3699\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/highskywing.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}