Shortly after Ivan, we recd a call that invited several museums already in the Navy loan program to come over and tag some items that we thought might enhance our displays. The guys from Midway got there first. We were second. We went through and tagged a bunch of the small stuff that is in your pictures. After we left the whole idea was squashed, Midway got nothing, we got nothing. Apologies were made and accepted for wasting our time. The next time I was at the museum I saw that a great many of the items that we tagged were now being used in some capacity on the main museum floor. Now I see in Owen's pictures that a lot of the stuff we saw is now sitting in the new warehouse.
When we looked at the Arado's wings they were stacked like cordwood in a small alcove. They were full of intergranular corrosion. The F4Fs were there and a couple were on their gear with the wings folded. There was a Dauntlas on its gear sans wings. All had their engines still installed. One of the Wildcat's engine was still leaking oil ! The T-34s look just the same.
The building that all of this was in was built like a fort, was prewar and was close to the Lexington's berth. They said it had about 5-6 ft of storm surge in it. The base commander said that there wasn't enough money to repair all of the buildings so he had some of them torn down. Some went back as far as the Civil War. What a waste !
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