WALNUT RIDGE -- One of the countless costs of war confronts visitors outside the entrance to Wings of Honor Museum at the former Walnut Ridge Army Air Field.
Embedded at ground level, it's a rectangle of markers listing the 42 World War II airmen who died here between Nov. 15, 1942, and June 1, 1944. The memorial's inscription reads: "In memory of the young men who made the supreme sacrifice -- killed while training to serve their country."
The names of these lost trainees -- war victims as surely as the many thousand U.S. airmen shot down in combat over Europe and the Pacific -- reveal an ethnic mix suited to a war-movie stereotype of American diversity: Robert E. Fitzgerald, Walter J. Tomaszewski, Arthur H. Stein, Alfred M. Tua, Galen K. Saul, Charles M. Moravcik, George F. Woessner, Cleve C. Balkcum, Seymoure Auborn, Emmanuele W. Angello and 32 others.
Inside the museum, created and maintained by volunteers as a labor of love, dozens and dozens of information panels relate the history of World War II in impressive detail. Accompanied by photographs, the accounts go well beyond the role of Allied and Axis air forces to recount land and sea campaigns along with life on the homefronts and other topics.
One exhibit shows the relatively spartan housing conditions for trainees and staff. Enlisted men lived in open-bay barracks with 32 folding cots. For cadets and officers, there was a modicum of privacy. There was no indoor plumbing, with a detached latrine building provided for each group of six to 10 enlisted men and cadets. Officers' latrines were connected to their barracks.
The museum's potpourri of topics includes an alcove detailing World War II's impact on baseball. More than 100 Arkansas players at the major-league, minor-league and collegiate levels served in the military, including All-Stars George Kell and Johnny Sain. Three minor leaguers from the state were killed while in service: Marshall Snead, Charles Pescod and Mason Smith.
There are no actual World War II aircraft on display, which could disappoint some visitors. A plane suspended from the ceiling is a scaled-down copy of a Vought F4U Corsair fighter. Also on exhibit is just the front cockpit of a Vultee BT-13 Valiant, one of the main training craft employed at the facility.
The museum sits across the road from the terminal for Walnut Ridge Regional Airport, where The Beatles famously showed up in September 1964 while traveling between shows on their first American tour. John Lennon and Ringo Starr landed in a private plane, while Paul McCartney and George Harrison arrived by car. The local community was agog.
Walnut Ridge has turned that single event into tourism, highlighted by Beatles at the Ridge, a yearly festival scheduled for Sept. 15-16. This year's program includes performances of Beatles' songs, a symposium of Beatles-theme authors and artists, a cooking competition and an auto show.
Festivalgoers can combine the two-day immersion in nostalgia for the Fab Four, including strolls along downtown's Beatles Park and the Guitar Walk along SW Front Street (U.S. 67B), with more somber reflections on the past at Wings of Honor Museum.
Wings of Honor Museum is at Walnut Ridge Regional Airport, four miles north of downtown Walnut Ridge off U.S. 67. A sign marks the right turn. The museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 2-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free; donations are welcome. Visit wingsofhonor.org or call (870) 886-6748.
For details on the Sept. 15-16 Beatles at the Ridge festival, visit beatlesattheridge.com.
Style on 09/12/2017