National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force

Me in front of the B-17G City of Savannah
Pooler, GA
June 19, 2024

 I have driven by this museum, which sits just off I-95, on many occasions. There is a beautiful B-47 sitting outside which calls to me every time we pass it on the road. Yet, until yesterday, I had been too focused upon the destination and not the journey to stop and visit the museum.

B-17G City of Savannah
Pooler, GA
June 19, 2024

The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force is located in Pooler, Georgia. Actually, it is a Savannah exit. It is easy on and off the interstate and definitely worth a stop if your interests include the Air Force and WW2. 

Both of those topics interest me and I was assigned to Eighth Air Force for six years of my Air Force career. First to a bombardment wing in Rome, NY, and then to the Eighth Air Force Headquarters itself which was then at Barksdale AFB, LA. 

The museum presently focuses the history to the Eighth Air Force through the Berlin Airlift, but is being expanded. There are two Vietnamese era fighters on display outside: a MiG-17 and an F-4. But the items associated with WW2 and the story of the campaigns and the crews and personnel assigned are rich. The museum has the only escape and survival section, in the form of a reconstructed house, that I have seen and describes how the civilians living in Europe assisted allied airmen to evade and escape from Nazi-controlled areas--often at the price of their own lives and freedom. 

Why is the museum outside Savannah? I learned that the first headquarters of the Eighth Air Force was in Savannah, Georgia! 

The artifacts in the museum are inspiring and relevant to today. I found the Hitler Youth Oath posted on the wall of the museum. The youth are often portrayed as more like the Boy Scouts, but this oath indicates that it was much more allegiance to one man and not an ideal or a republic--but a single person, which I found scary.

Of all of the items in the museum, except for of course the B-17, one item that really caught eye was the Nazi banner. I had never seen one in real life. I had seen images of them hanging from buildings, but never fully comprehended their larger than life size and impact. 

I definitely recommend this museum. They also have a mission briefing that runs through how the aircrews were prepped for missions and the ground crews maintained the planes. It has a lot of actual footage and is well done. I was told it is soon to be replaced by  something similar which is being produced by the 100 Bomb Group organization which assisted with the series Master's of the Air.

-- Bob Doan, Pooler, GA