VOLUME 14 ISSUE 2

JULY, 2007

CALENDAR

July, 2007 21– Board Meeting 8:30 AM—Museum August , 2007 18– Board Meeting 8:30 AM—Museum September, 2007 15—Board Meeting 8:30 AM—Museum October—TBA BBQ & Silent Auction Co-Sponsored by the Sons of American Legion

INSIDE THIS

ISSUE

The 1940s era Quonset Hut was originally located at Minter Field. It has been offered to the Museum by the Kern County Museum after they de-accessed it from their inventory. All we need to do is to get it moved back. We have a space for it on the northeast corner of our museum lot, and have engineered the footings. The building is lined on both inside walls and down the middle with shelving, which is exactly what we need to catalog and store the many artifacts we have piled up in one of our storage rooms in the Museum. We have an up-dated version of Museum soft-ware designed to log and document donations of . . . . .Continued on Page 6

Left Seat 2

Pix Page 3 Gift Shop Manager Guest Articles

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Historical Minter Field Pictures

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Quonset Hut Do-nation Form

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Membership

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Wartime Cartoons

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For the 21st time, the Warbirds returned to Minter Field. This year’s crop was a real variety. There was everything from L-birds to jets, fighters and bombers, trainers and helicopters. We even had an amazing dem-onstration by 2 radio con-trolled true jets performing aerobatics of all kinds. We had a great lineup of gift

vendors and food. The weather was perfect, al-

though rain curtailed our press day activities on Friday, and affected some of our planes coming from other areas. Highlites included the 4 ship Thunder Delfins, an F-86 Saber Jet, a quartet of WWII Pacific fighters featuring a Mit-subishi Zero, Chance Vought Corsair, Grumman Hellcat and Curtis P-40 Warhawk We saw 3 of our home-town favorites, the BT-13, and the show was opened by 3 Reno Air Race Champions, Al Goss & Eddie Van Fossen in AT-6s and Tiger Destefani’s P-51 Strega.. . . . See page 3 for more pictures.

Return the Quonset Hut to Minter Field

20’ x 55’ Quonset Hut needed at Minter Field.

Warbirds In Action, April 21, 2007

II

Thunder Delfins in Tight Formation Photo by Victor Archer

The Right Seat by Dean Craun Vice-Chairman of the Board

I thought I’d give the Chairman a break from the normal “letter-from-the-top” this issue. Gen. Whitehead has a unique perspective of how to set and accom-plish the goals of the Museum from his many years of military and government experience. The Minter Field Air Museum has come a long way since Jim took the Chairman’s seat in January of 2001, after four years’ leadership by John Bogacki. We’ve been very fortunate to have had these two capable men giving us direction. What has been accomplished with an all-volunteer group of peo-ple is a source of amazement to all of us. We know that it sometimes seems that a simple task like putting up a new hangar takes us many months of effort

do. But with determination that never waivers, this will happen this year. The problem is that once we get this 50’ x 50’ building up, we’ll need to start on another one. We have opportuni-ties on the horizon that will require more hangar space. And so it goes - we do the best we can with what we have. Funding is always a primary task. We’ve been doing more fund-raising in the last couple years. One source of funds is our membership dues. Every year, we ask our members to help us cover our annual expenses of operation by renewing their annual memberships. Our sup-porting members are our life-blood for keeping the doors open. And every year, we are fortu-nate to receive lifetime memberships which vary in amounts from $500 on up. And lately, we have sent fund-raising donation letters out to people throughout Kern County. A third source of funding is through grants. This is an area of expertise that we are not as familiar with. It takes a person of special skills to seek out and prepare paperwork for the many opportunities that are available. We have had help from a few friends of the Museum, but we still are looking to do a better job of writing grants. Major projects like moving buildings back to Minter Field require thousands of dollars. Other entities in Kern County seem to be able to at-tract the funds - so we will work on the skills necessary to make it happen for us. A note about our Warbirds In Action Air Show. While our aircraft numbers were down this year (just under 50 planes), we had a very good variety of models and types. You won’t often see a flight of 4 Pacific fighters (Corsair, Zero, Wildcat and P-40) flying together. And the F-86 Saberjet was a real thrill to see. The cost to bring in aircraft and especially this year, to provide fuel has been escalating every year. We’ll continue to do our best to give our Warbirds fans a good show for their money. One of the biggest problems these days is finding a date that will work. With all the organizations holding events in the area, as well as all of the air shows that are staged in California, it’s harder and harder to find a date that won’t conflict with some other event. We haven’t announced a date for the 2008 air show yet - we’re looking at options in the Spring and the Fall. We’ll let you know when a date is chosen. I’d like to put out a special call for anyone who might like to give us a hand with putting out this Snap Roll newsletter. We would like to have one every quarter (we a bit late with this one). We are also looking at putting the newsletter on our website or delivering it by e-mail. This could save us some printing and mailing costs. It would also allow us to present the pictures in color. I’ll make an effort to get this issue on the website— www.minterfieldairmuseum.com . Take a look and see what you think. Resizing everything to deliver it by e-mail would take some time, but might also be a worthwhile task. If you have computer skills that could be of help with this, let me know. You can always e-mail us at mfam@minterfieldairmuseum.com . Enough for this issue. Til next time, I leave you with an invitation to come

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PAGE 3 MFAM Pix Page

Warbirds In Action Air Show April 21, 2007

CAF’s Mitsubishi Zero Chuck Wahl’s T-28 Trojan

Photo Credit: P-40, Zero & T-28; Richard Satchell Yak 11-Victor Archer; F-86, 3 Fighters Jeffrey Archer.

Chino’s F-86 Saber Jet Pacific Fighter Reunion

Chino’s P-40 Warhawk Kent Carlomagno’s Yak-11

The Museum Gift Shop is a potential profit center that is ready to blossom. We are looking for a per-son or couple that can take the reigns and bring out this potential. The Gift Shop has a good assortment of items for sale - some are very Minter Field spe-

cific. Our belt buckles are exclu-sive designs created over the years to commemorate Minter Field and famous aircraft that have been to the field. We have an assortment of Warbirds In Action shirts, hats, cups and more. We even have a website and an E-bay account to work with. We can help you create an easy-to-use accounting & inventory system. We just need someone to step up! If you think you might be the right person, have some basic computer skills and some time you can devote to the job, we’ll give you as much support as you’ll need. The Gift Shop has it’s own checking account with a healthy balance, and the manager has total control of what is ordered in the way of inventory. We have some great new items that could be added that look like good money makers. Our goal is to get our gift shop on the web with an E-bay store that would tap into the huge E-bay marketing potential. Our website is also a good place to market our wares. We Need Someone To Step Up and Make It Work !!

Gift Shop Needs Manager - Profit Center

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The Snap Roll II Newsletter is looking for historic and aviation oriented articles and stories to bring to our Museum members and friends. Each quarter, the Snap Roll II is mailed out to nearly 700 households, and we are taking steps to make it available on-line through our website. If you have some unique experiences or some interesting information to share with our readers, contact the Museum by e-mail @ mfam@minterfieldairmuseum.com or leave us a message at the Museum by phone—(661) 393-0291. We can share pic-tures also. Your personal stories are the kind of items that people are interested in. Perhaps it was something that happened during your military career, or something about a relative who was interested in aviation. We’d love to share your articles in the Snap Roll II. Think about it. We’d like to hear from you.

Do You Have Journalistic Skills - We Want Your Articles & Stories

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Minter Field History

Photos taken from September 16, 1943 Snap Roll Newspaper published by Minter Field.

First Graduating Class Tent City at Meadows Field - 1941

First Graduating Class Chow Line - Note aircraft in background The old PX - Complete with soda fountain

US Hwy 99 & Lerdo Hwy - Feb, 1941

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Quote to Move the Quonset Hut to Minter Field: $10,500

RETURN THE QUONSET HUT TO MINTER FIELD

Sponsor: _______________________________Donation:$_______________

Company: ______________________________________________________

Address: _______________________ City: _____________ St___Zip_______

Ph: ___________________________ Fax: ____________________________

E-mail: _________________________________________________________

Signature: _____________________________________Date: _____________

Name (Print): ______________________________Title: __________________

WE NEED 5 GOOD DONATIONS OF $2,500 EACH TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN IMMEDIATELY.

EACH DONATION OF $2500 WILL RECEIVE A WARBIRD RIDE AT MINTER FIELD

Donations to Return Quonset Hut—Please Help!

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MEMBERSHIP– Join Now for 2007

Tail-Spin Café

211 Aviation St Minter Field (Next to the

District Office) Monday - Friday 7A-2P

Weekly and Daily Specials

Good Food Great Prices

Wartime Cartoons Appeal to Soldiers

We’re on the Web

Phone: 661-393-0291 Fax: 661-393-3296

Email: MFAM@MinterFieldAirMuseum.com

Non-Profit Org US Postage Paid Bakersfield, CA Permit 1128

Shafter Airport 401 Vultee St.

PO Box 445 Shafter, CA 93263

www.MinterFieldAirMuseum.com

Address Service Requested