Stockton Field Aviation Museum's Hangar Project

HELP THE MUSEUM TO GET A 'NEW' WWII HANGAR

Created 1-20-2012

The Stockton Field Aviation Museum needs your help.

Our museum has been growing for some time now and we are ready to take the next step. We need to expand to a larger facility, set up a full museum and open the doors for regular hours. For several years now we have been asking the Stockton Airport administration about a WWII original hanger here at Stockton Airport and it has recently become available. This facility would be perfect for our museum as it would house all of our aircraft, exhibits and artifacts. It will allow us to continue with our mission of preserving the aviation history of Stockton, San Joaquin County and our Nation and presenting it to the public through a living history format.

The hangar is one of the few original WWII structures left at Stockton and needs to be preserved and cared for. The last decade has seen almost all of the WWII structures here demolished. This hangar needs to be saved and it would provide a perfect period setting for the museum and the history that it has preserved. Please help us to secure this facility.

It seems the airport management is not very interested in having us open a museum in this hangar which is where you can help us out. This coming Tuesday we are presenting our proposal to the San Joaquin County Airport Advisory Committee with the hopes that the board will endorse our acquisition of the WWII hangar. If you believe that what we have been doing to preserve history and present it to the public to teach them about the sacrifices of our country has been a good thing and if you believe that we should keep this mission going and growing then please give us your support.

If you can come to the Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday to make your support known we would appreciate it. If you cannot attend in person please write to the board with your support. It seems we need to convince the Airport Administration and the County Board of Supervisors that we are not some fly by night outfit and that we want to bring something very special to Stockton Airport.

We have put on some very special programs here at Stockton Airport in the form of Aviation events, Warbird meetings, Airport dedication days, Collings Foundation B-17, B-24 P-51 visits, Kids Fingerprint day, Airport open houses, Bomber Camp, WWII Aircrew Symposiums and we have hosted countless local school field trips. We continue to bring our aviation history alive and present it to the public. The hangar and ramp facility would open up the opportunity for many more educational events of which would be a benefit to the local economy in so many different ways.

Our commitment to the preservation of our Aviation heritage and public education is unquestioned by everyone except the airport administration. Please let them know that having the Stockton Field Aviation Museum at the WWII hangar is a good idea and that they should support us to that end.

The Airport Advisory Committee meeting is being held at the conference room upstairs in Suite 202 of the main airport terminal at 5pm on Tuesday, January 24^th. Should you wish to talk at the meeting you will need to fill out an application to do so. The application can be found here:

http://www.sjgov.org/uploadedFiles/SJC/Departments/Airport/County_Aviation_Advisory_Committee/CAAC%20Public%20Comment%20Form(1).pdf

The form can be faxed to the airport office at (209) 468-4730 or emailed to dvasquez@sjgov.org

You certainly do not have to talk to the committee but any show of support would be appreciated.

Your support of our mission can also be directed to Patrick Carreno the Stockton Airport Interim Manager:

Interim Airport Director
Patrick T. Carreno
5000 S. Airport Way
Suite 202
Stockton, CA 95206
Phone: (209) 468-4700
Fax: (209) 468-4730

pcarreno@sjgov.org

Support can also be sent to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors. Here is a link to their contact information:

http://www.sjgov.org/board/

Thank you for your ongoing support for the Stockton Field Aviation Museum and our efforts toward a finding a new facility.

Here are the images from a presentation we put together for this project. The photos give a good look at past events at the museum.

Click here to go directly to the power point presentation

Click on each thumbnail below if you would like to see a larger image