Sunday February 17 2008 11:10:06 am

I have a subject that I have been giving some thought to lately. The Parachute Tower is the Tall building located just north of the former machine shop just northeast of The Large tank manufacturing Hangar. In my visiting with another army airfield student it has come up that this may very well be the last Parachute building of its kind in the 2nd airforce area. Some airfields only have the concrete foundations left. I understand the Pratt one has the original woodwork inside and the original doors. My thinking is that we really need to preserve this building and restore it to its original configuaration. Hopefully no additional doors or windows will be cut into the structure. I would like the process to establish a historical structure be started. Maybe this has already been done. But the existing South hangar and the bomb site vaults and chemical building along with this one are definately worth trying to save.

There is a nice collection of Army Airforce items in the county museum. It would be great to build a museum at the airport near the Memorial Plaza. This could be a real asset in the future as I and you folks are finding out that the younger generations know little about the WW2 era. Pratt Armyairfield would be a great location for a central display of memorabelia and history of that era. You could recreate the Map room or operations center , You have the daily mission board at the museum. I found out that when I was in the Walker-Russell area that a lot of items are out there and if there is a good place to keep and display them they will surface and be available. Kansas is really lacking a dedicated Army Airforces Museum in this area. We have DOC in Wichita but there are doubts about it ever being completed. It will take a tremendous amout of money and skilled labor to get the B29 flying again.

This web site that Milt has up and going should attract some attention to the Pratt County Museum and the Pratt Armyairfield. It is easily accessible and can spark the interest of many.

Thanks for the space. Phillip Schulz

Friday January 30 2009 01:24:00 pm

Just testing... Please ignore this reply.