Warbird Information Exchange

This is in response to some of the stuff said here about TIGHAR and other organizations which are competitive in our fields of warbird interest, and some other ideas I've been kicking around in my head.

Obviously, they don't approach warbird preservation the same way we do. And of course, they have the official ear of lots of people, but that is a function of how they have networked themselves, and who supports them- very important; you dry up the money, and they go away. Here is a little story from local Baltimore history which goes to illustrate my point.

We have the USS Constellation here in Baltimore. Long while back, there was a fool (no other word for him) who found the magic ingredient to assure his position in the organization surrounding the ship by stating that the ship was built during the War of 1812. Since Baltimore is where the "Star Spangled Banner" was written by FS Key, that got the immediate attention (and financial support) of lots of local, powerful people. It also got the immediate attention of people analogous to us, who knew that the ship was knocked together in 1858, built on the then and now USN practice of NOT building a new warship, but "restoring" an old one by completely building a new one on an old set of paperwork, ala the new builds of aircraft on old paperwork, but all new parts. Problem was, this guy got into a position of BIG authority, including the restoration, and proved he was (1) not a true academic or even interested party (2) a bad manager, actually destroying some historic pieces of the ship to prove his point but not actually accomplishing anything and (3) had the hold of the public mindset. While he was eventually dispossessed of his position of authority, and faded from the sunlight like all worms eventually do one way or the other, the point is this. It took LOTS of formal papers and public meetings and ORGANIZATION to disprove his crap- and most of it was done by people like you and me.

So here's my pitch. It follows from a few things that have been knocking around here on the board for a while.

1. Form a formal organization. Don't let Rob Rohr near the microphone without a Valium (just joking Rob- the coon dogs are howling).

2. Schedule events which deal with things like FAA regs on warbirds, interaction with former owners (USN, USAF, USMC, US Army), restoration technology, UFO identification (important to me at least), public relations, safety, etc. Put it at an established airshow (Sun n' Fun) or at least in close time and location proximity to one so we can get maximal participation.

3. PUBLISH. We are already doing that. Every post here, like my friend Bill Gates would have us believe, is a piece of researched, referenced, argued, documented investigation into our items of interest. We need to archive this information and make a REAL piece of reference. It legitimizes us. We have a problem here in that we are all scholars without a college. In my other areas of interest, I have a friend who has worked in an Indian Motorcycle shop for 35 of his first 45 years- he knows everything, and if there was an Indian Motorcycle Baccalaureate program, he'd be a Dean Emeritus. We need to found the department and run the program, or at least find some university which wants to work on this kind of stuff (formally).

4. Tolerate dissent- I think we are getting there, but there is nothing worse in the public's eye than a set of out-on-a-limb goofballs with eclectic interests arguing publicly about esoteric crap. Keep it civil and keep it (mostly) clean and sound real smart and the public will like us.


And better yet, we will have a real voice. This talk set up by Rob with the USN is a good start. I'd be willing to go down there a day early to set up something along the lines I have proposed. I have heard other proposals with things like a restored aircraft to go around to shows and publicize our cause. I'd like to hear them in person and see what we can REALLY DO!

What do you all think?

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