status of museum and artifacts

This is my first attempt at using the WIX arena. I want to personally thank all of those that offered support, advise and just a good conversation concerning the National Museum of Naval Aviation and its run in with "Ivan the Terrible". I am hoping Owen can come over and I will get him permission to get on the base and take some pictures.. It is not as bad as it sounds, but damage is damage. The main museum took some hits and water but nothing was damaged but the building. My staff through our Disaster Preparedness plan made sure that the small artifacts (over one million) were secured as best they could be.. As some of you know many years ago I bifurcated the collection. In the hopes that if a disaster ever came our way, something would be left. Besides the main museum, I have aircraft and artifacts stored in bldg. 3221, and bldg. 604 on the other side of the base. This really helped us. Besides the damage to the aircraft we only lost one artifact which was a "Lucky Bag from 1916".. That is it and considering a water surge of over 13 feet we were damned lucky.. Now, however in bldg. 604 where I have the German Arado, the Rex float plane, and several recovered Lake Michigan aircraft, there is a industrial hygeine concern and I would not let my guys go in there until I have determined that the mud that permeates the place is indeed just mud or perhaps is more nefarious with effluent from some unknown sort. We have received some damage in that area, but I do not think through an initial inspection that it is irreparable. As today, is the first day with power and computers, I wanted to take a break and get this message out.. I can not thank enough my new friends at WIX for their continued thought provoking imput into an area that concerns all of us, namely the preservation of naval aviation for future generations. A special thank you to the good Colonel, and Owen. These two have hopefully opened the door to an area that needs to be opened... I will keep you posted as to the possibility of having the meeting. It is my intention to do so, I just have to change logistics as far as hotels, halls, bars, is concerned... Respectfully, Macon

[TimAPNY]

Thanks for the update and I hope everything will be back to "normal" as soon as possible.

[mrhenniger]

Thank-you very much for the post.

Regards,

Mike

[Scott Rose]

Thank you for the update and good luck with the clean up.

[Warhawk]

Thank you very much sir. It's nice of you to take the time to update us on whats going on there "from the trenches" as it were. I look forward to more good news in the future.

[Dave C]

As everyone has stated thank you for taking the time to post the status and provide some details. Many of us were trying to get info from the papers and even the Sat shot showing the Museum.

First let me state how glad I am that the museum escaped most of what had befallen the rest of the base and that it received less damage then it could have. Hats off to the plan and obvious efforts of the staff to protect everything as best as possible.

Is there a short list of aircraft in the static park that were damaged? We have been speculating and it would be nice to know what the real result of Ivan "the terrible" was (it looks like a few aircraft had wing spearations and the Privateer which lost its engine).

Again thank you for taking the time to post when you must be so busy bringing things back to some kind of normal.

Dave C

[Dennis Bergstrom]

Thank you Macon for the detailed report! As you know, all of us that love warbirds were VERY worried about your museum and the priceless aircraft and artifact treasures that it contains. It was great to hear from you about the museum's survival with relatively light damage.

With kind regards, Dennis

[Don Martin]

The post is greatly apreciated!
Regards,
Don Martin

[Jeffrey]

welcome to WIX sir and I certainly hope to see regular input from you. the news of how little damage has actually happened at pensacola, compared to what was possible, was a great relief and shows that forethought and planning can accomplish a lot