Fairchild Heritage Museum Wants To Enter Private Sector

The Fairchild Heritage Museum is bucking for a new rank: private.

A little more than a year ago, the facility at Fairchild Air Force Base was ordered demoted from museum to “historic holding facility,” due to federal budget cuts.

That meant the museum would be required to reduce the number of items in its collection from 5,000 to 500 and move to much smaller quarters than its existing 12,000-square-foot space.

But a new plan, submitted this summer by the museum’s all-volunteer staff and approved by Air Force officials, would privatize the military museum.

To accomplish that, director Fred Brown and other volunteers must raise $5 million to relocate and expand the museum and air park. It would remain on the base and retain a close association with the Air Force.

The volunteers have two years to raise the money. Brown, a former Spokane business owner, is seeking donations and grants from individuals, corporations and the government.

Brown wants to move the collection from its present home in a former barracks building to a higher-visibility site at the corner of Rambo Road and U.S. Highway 2, along the edge of the air base.

“We would be in a position where we would be able to represent all the military arms - whether that be Army, Navy or Air Force,” he said.

The museum’s aim is to depict the development of military aviation, the history of Fairchild, its relationship to Spokane and the history of the 116th Observation Squadron, formed here in 1924.

Brown, whose father flew 35 missions during World War II, wants to preserve the museum for the more than 7,000 military retirees who live in the area - and the hundreds of schoolchildren who visit the museum each year for a hands-on local history lesson.

Kids like to sit in the B-52 simulator, whose 1957 computer fills three-quarters of a railroad car but is less powerful than today’s desk-top computers, he said.

The museum is a treasure trove of facts and artifacts. Many items come from Fort George Wright, Brown said.

On one wall hangs a photograph of movie star Clark Gable, who completed his gunnery training at Fort Wright during World War II.

“We had part of the first black Army units, the 24th and 25th, the mounted infantry better known as the Buffalo Soldiers, stationed at Fort George Wright for 20 years,” Brown said.

The adjacent airpark boasts a working 1938 Studebaker fire engine, as well as seven aircraft, including a B-52 bomber and several fighter planes.

“It’s nice they preserve these things so (people) can see how things were back then,” said a visitor, Chris Davis of Barberton, Ohio, who has a brother-in-law stationed at the base.

Active and former military personnel from across the country visit the museum. The guest book shows signed entries from people representing all 50 states.

“One of the things about working here - the reward is you talk to the people who live the stories,” Brown said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo