Casper Army Air Base and Veterans Museum

[jgoss]

Got a new museum out there.

Founded in 2002, the Wyoming Veterans' Memorial Museum is housed at the site of the former Casper Army Air Base. The story of the base is told there and it sets a context for stories of Wyoming's Veterans from all wars and services. This is Wyoming's official state Veteran's story repository. The museum is administered under the Wyoming Military Department.

A tad bit more random info regarding the air base:

Home to the 211th and 331st (mid 44-45 331st BG, B-29s) Combat Crew Training Schools for B-17 and B-24 crews from September '42 to March '45.
Trained somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 crewmen.
90 crashes, 130 aviators lost their lives between '42 and '45 flying at, near, or from the CAAB ... lest we forget.
3,000 personnel manned the base during the war years.
Lots of auxiliary schools.
About 90 of the original 400 buildings still standing including all 6 hangars.

We have a lot of stories of life on a bomber base and stories about crewmen. We love to share.

Located at what is now the Casper/Natrona County International Airport
3740 Jourgensen Ave.
Casper, Wyoming 82604
307-472-1857
Hours: Tues - Sat, 9-4.

If you have questions or need info, feel free to contact me.

[GARY HILTON]

Y'all need a PV-2 Harpoon to display there? I got a couple about a hundred miles north of you...

G

[RickH]

How bout some pictures of what's left. How much of the runway system is left is left ?

[jgoss]

Gary,

Regarding the PV-2, thank you for the offer. Your offer is quite timely. We are conceptualizing a static exhibit park near adjacent to the museum, both vehicles and aircraft (heck the local Navy League even tried to get me to adopt a 40 ft. torpedo!). Our dual mission covers all Veterans, all Wars, and the old Casper Army Air Base. With that in mind the old Navy PV-2 would be a neat attraction. I can't say that I have ever touched one, I can't recall seeing one actually.

Would like to visit further with you on this topic. I'm new to WIX and I do not know a lot of folks yet, so i'll ask. Are the PV-2s up in Greybull or closer? I wouldn't mind coming up to see them.

Again thanks for the offer.

John

[jgoss]

Rick,

I'll post some shots next week once I figger how to post images on this blog. As for the runways, two were lengthened and are still in service as the Casper/Natrona County International Airport. We still get a lot of Military traffic on them, primarily on a monthly basis, sometimes even more frequent than that (F-22, B-1, C-17, wierd sneaky Navy AWACY things, lots of copters, etc...).