This museum tells the history of the Walnut Ridge Army Flying School that operated on an airfield here for two years during WWII. Just after I arrived, a torrential rainstorm swept through, so I wasn’t in any hurry to leave.
When I walked in, there wasn’t anybody around anywhere. I started to look around. Maybe five minutes later, a guy showed up and said hello. He said his wife usually gives tours, but she hurt her leg and was back in the office. If I had any questions, I could go back and ask her.
It’s a typical small-town museum with tons of uniforms, weapons, and other artifacts that people saved as souvenirs of the war. But parts of it were interesting because it told a lot about the local history, and because it focused on the experiences of individual people and their stories. Some were of people who died in the war. Others were survivors or even workers at the flying school. Here are just a few.
There was a memorial for the 42 men who died while in training at the base.
This is the actual crash truck used on the base to respond to plane crashes.
An entire wall was filled with boards that explained Arkansas’ contribution to the war — munitions factories, training bases, hospitals, P.O.W. camps. It was impressive, especially when I considered that that was all from just one state. The extent to which the entire nation was involved with the war is somewhat staggering.
A few of the items that caught my eye.
After the war, the base was used to store, scrap, and sell no-longer-needed airplanes.
There were exhibits about Vietnam, Korea, the Cold War, etc. I didn’t spend any time on those.
I was there about an hour — I’m sure it would have been more interesting with a tour guide to show me the highlights.
