Jan. 21, 2006, 7:56PM
A Fort Worth exhibit reaches new planes
The museum honoring obscure group of aviators is off to a good start
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Fort Worth Star-telegram
FORT WORTH - In a city known for its museums, another one is quietly and quickly acquiring an inventory. It is the Forward Air Control Museum, five planes and growing.
This museum is in an aging hangar adjacent to Meacham Airport in north Fort Worth and is dedicated to a rather obscure subgroup of combat aviators.
"We never expected to have this many airplanes this soon," said Jim Hodgson, a commercial pilot and president of the OV-10 Bronco Association, which launched the museum.
Unlike the more obvious-sounding 1st Cavalry Division Museum or the Cavanaugh Flight Museum, this military-focused place requires some explanation of both forward air controllers and unfamiliar planes such as the OV-10 Bronco and O-2 Skymaster.
The planes — the O stands for observer, like the F in F-16 stands for fighter — flew "low and slow" reconnaissance missions, guiding artillery, naval gunfire and tactical aircraft onto specific targets.
Focus on Vietnam era
Although forward air control planes were used from World War I to the Persian Gulf War, the focus at Meacham is on the Vietnam era, when men such as Hodgson, 57, earned their air medals.
"Now they've got guys in Florida controlling unmanned drones in Afghanistan doing the same thing we did," he said. "They get to go home with the kids and the dog at the end of the day, instead of going to the club and saying, 'Wow, that was close today.' "
The founders and members of the Bronco Association, formed in 1997 in Colleyville, worked for years to obtain airplanes that might help them tell their stories to a wider audience.
"We want to tell a more complete story, rather than just have our individual stovepipes," said Doc Lambert, 63, a retired Air Force pilot who lives in Fort Worth. "We can gain momentum."
The museum is definitely a work in progress, bankrolled by no one wealthy and operated on a shoestring budget. There isn't even an admission charge, only a donation box. It's open only for six hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
It shares space with the Vintage Flying Museum, which showcases a number of World War II-era aircraft.
Getting big-name fighters
The indoor museum is only a few hundred square feet, filled with Vietnam-era memorabilia, a memorial to the forward air controllers killed in Vietnam and a sign at the front that says "Cleared Hot."
On weekends, the association members who live close enough drive in to help restore the warbirds, sanding and rebuilding an O-2 Skymaster in a cramped room next door.
But only in the past two years did they have much success in securing any airplanes. They first got an OV-10 mockup, then added the O-2, then an F-4 Phantom that flew in Vietnam.
Trying to get the big-name fighters is key to making the museum successful, they said.
"It's kind of like a circus," Hodgson said. "We've got to have a main attraction, so they'll come see that, but then they'll see the side shows, too."
The museum received its second OV-10 Bronco on Wednesday, having finally persuaded the California Department of Forestry to give up two of them a few months ago. Both planes had been mothballed for years after having flown for the military, then for the Bureau of Land Management.
Restoring the planes
Both need extensive work, especially since the museum volunteers want to make them airworthy again.
"We want to fly these bad boys," said Garry Goff, 47, a commercial pilot and Richardson resident who flew Air Force OV-10s during the 1980s.
They expect it to take $300,000 to put one in the air again, to be used as a flying memorial to the 63 air control pilots and crew members killed in Vietnam.
Where they'll get the money is another matter.
Even so, they're still in the acquisitions business.
They have purchased and will soon take delivery of an F-5, which they intend to paint the colors of the South Vietnamese air force.
"We FACed for them, too," Hodgson said.
"The OV-10 is only a chapter in a book. And the book isn't complete."
Wish em the best of luck!
Robbie
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