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Thank You!

From our Curator - I'd like to share an insightful comment by one of our visitors, and our reply:

Philip Beckman, Yucaipa, CA 

I've been a longtime fan of military aviation history. But after spending a couple of hours at the excellent March Field Air Museum yesterday, I had an epiphany. While the pace of technology and performance have been thrilling, the misery and destruction behind it all suddenly leaves me disconsolate.

Reply:

Aviation is a technological wonder that has vastly improved the human condition. At the March Field Air Museum our commitment to education demands we accurately acknowledge the history of aviation is also rife with human cost.

Our ascent to the skies is a rich tapestry woven with equal measures of innovation, creativity, honor, courage, sacrifice, brutality and horror. Here, we strive to tell the story with honesty and integrity never flinching from harsh reality. Within our exhibits one hears Siegfried Sassoon lament the hell that was the First World War and listens as American ace Eddie Rickenbacker describes air combat as “scientific murder”. One can share the experience of Vince Rogers, as the young airman changes from a naive innocent to a hardened veteran before losing his own life in the struggle against Imperial Japan.

We do not hesitate in describing the moral cost and human tragedy of war whether we are describing the Allied bomber offensives of WWII, the crucible that was Vietnam or today's struggle in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

If during your visit you were awed by the technological wonder of aviation and humbled by the nobility and sacrifice of veterans as well as being struck by the darker dimension of aviation history I can only say we have done our job. Thank you for coming in.