New
World War II Glider Museum Celebrates "Silent Wings" on the
High Plains of Texas
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from page 7)
The museum has the expected variety of functions–lobby and admissions desk; a modest but interesting gift shop (I bought a book of glider recollections and a soda can insulator bearing the museum's very nice logo); a movie theater running an overview of the WWII glider program; mural-sized maps and historical reviews; miscellaneous interesting artifacts donated by veterans; a firearms display; life-sized combat dioramas; and a light-filled aircraft exhibit space with a tall glass wall looking across the North-South runway to the airline terminal building. There are video stations where one can view films from the training and war service of the gliders, and listen to veterans of the glider service tell touching and hair-raising stories of "what it was like over there." While the gliders contributed a lot to the conquest of Germany after the Normandy invasion, a lot of airplanes got busted and people injured and killed by landings under unimaginably dangerous conditions. Hays expects that the visitor "should understand how the glider pilots did their job under difficult circumstances, getting the men and hardware on the ground in the landing zones."
The aircraft exhibits include a lovingly restored Waco CG-4A glider, and parts of others that let the visitor see details of the pilots' stations and the crew space. A colorful restored TG-4A training glider hangs from the lofty ceiling. Unfortunately, on the day of my visit, there did not appear to be a docent available to answer questions. The aircraft exhibit hall is small by Smithsonian standards, but appropriate for the planes shown. However, there does not appear to be much room for additional exhibits.
Director Hays said of the overall program, "It's not just about the combat, but about taking a new idea to reality in just a few short months, and the many things that had to be done–the ideas, the planning and design, contracting, construction, recruiting, training, and so on. It took huge numbers of people stateside to make it possible for the gliders to make their tremendous contribution to the war effort–many hours of work for those few minutes gliding into battle."
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