Reported by Brad Penner, STATEWIDE Correspondent
 
 
In the fall of 1948, the Strategic Air Command moved into its new headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. In the spring of 1998, a new museum dedicated to the mission and memory of sac will open its doors for the first time.
[Wayne Schmidt, SAC Museum Director] "It's beautiful. It shows the commitment of this community to house the collection and build this facility. Number one, of course, it's very impressive to walk in and see an SR-71 this close. I think also just driving up and seeing this facility on the plains of Nebraska, if you will, is startling."
Beyond the striking entryway is 300,000 square feet of space filled with aircraft and exhibits.
[Schmidt] "A museum is a place that interprets the artifacts."
The planes of SAC helped protect our nation, but it took a lot of work and a lot of money to protect those planes. Rain on the planes turned them into rusting relics. They sat exposed to the elements at the site of the old museum next to Offutt Air Force Base. Museum supporters set out to raise enough money to put the planes under cover at a new museum building. The planes also got some reconstructive surgery.
[Dick Austin, restoration volunteer] "They've been out in the elements for so many years. The corrosion is terrible. And to put them back into first class condition, you have to go down to the bare metal."
[Denny Haun, Restoration Crew Chief] "Our SR-71 Blackbird over here. This is the key aircraft as you go into our new museum that's going to be mounted on a pedestal in the atrium. Mock three plus aircraft. One of the fastest aircrafts in the world. Beautiful aircraft. Sleek, mean, trim. It's going to be a showcase of our new museum once we get it all painted up."
On June 17, the SR-71 and a squadron of other planes and ppers of planes were ready to hit the road in a one-of-a-kind mission.
[Gen. Leo Smith ret., Chairman-SAC Museum Board] "I don't think you'll ever find again -- and I don't think there's ever been this large an aircraft move, museum aircraft anywhere in the country and perhaps anywhere in the world. One of the obstacles was, quite frankly, getting from here to the highway and we had to build a road, quite frankly, from the end of the runway across a culvert across railroad tracks across another culvert and out to the highway."
The custom built road was rougher than expected, but then again, no one had ever moved an SR-71 like this.
Not very often. Once in a lifetime probably. A curious crowd lined the route, some simply wanted to see the parade, others had a special connection to the event. Dorene Sherman works at Offutt. She remembered the time two SR-71 pilots visited her children's school.
[Dorene Sherman, spectator] "And now my children are both 40 years old, and they have four children, and so now they can tell their children about the history of this, so we're very happy that this is going to be at the front of the museum to show the world. "
For the next nine hours or so, the caravan wound its way down the highways of Sarpy County.
[Trooper Mike Jones, Nebraska State Patrol] "Our primary purpose is to make sure that the motoring public is not impaired out there too much out there today by the move but there is going to be some and we have tried to let them know about that. "
[Gen. Smith] "I think the cost of the move of all of the aircraft by the time we get them out there will be right around $1 million. "
[Haun] "The first move we had an aircraft that was kind of reluctant to leave its old home. It had a tendency every now and then to have a mind of its own but finally I think, you know, we got that all squared away. The rest of the moves were totally uneventful."
The move may be over but the work will continue even after the museum opens.
[Haun] "Our aircraft restoration evident here in the SAC Museum is going to be going on for years and years to come just because they sat outside for 40 plus years and, you know, Nebraska winters and Nebraska summers but it's just great that we have the opportunity to bring them here and work on them."
[Schmidt] "With the B-36 and B-52 they're going to have to be done in place here in this hangar over the next four or five years. They couldn't design the building big enough to be able to give us the flexibility to be able to move them around so they were assembled on site. We will do the restoration right in here."
The ongoing restoration work isn't seen as an inconvenience for museum visitors. It's just another museum attraction.
[Haun] "You know, you would be surprised the aviation enthusiasts that come in. You know, what kind of rivet is that? Why are you doing this? It's kind of nice because you get a chance to not only let them see you do it but at the same time in some cases explain to them why we're doing this, why we want to bring it back to originality."
But the SAC Museum is more than a cool collection of planes.
[Schmidt] "You know, they're inanimate, they're an object. It's the people that are associated with them that's the history. That's the story that we're charged to tell. We're undertaking a whole program of oral histories where we're going to talk to people and, of course, it becomes more important with World War II era veteran because they're getting up on in years, even Korea for that matter. History is a continuing process. It just doesn't stop. It will be just as interesting to get the stories of the World War II guys as it will be to get the guys 10 years ago, you know, the folks that flew in Desert Storm."
Denny Haun was a crew chief on B-52's before he retired from the Air Force. Now he wants his work to help others understand why he spent so many days and nights on alert, ready to fly at a moments notice.
[Haun] "Why was the B-52 so important to the Cold War? You look at our B-17 behind me, it was very instrumental in bringing World War II to a close. We lost a lot of airmen, a lot of aircraft. We were able to use that as a deterrent force."
Some of the exhibits at the sac museum are especially geared for children. At the children's gallery, kids will learn what it's like to be a pilot. They'll also learn what it was like to be a kid during the Cold War. While the exhibit is for children, it's sure to bring back Cold War memories for adults as well. Another goal is for the museum to become a center for aviation education. One upcoming event features the son of Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union.
[Schmidt] "We're going to have rotating exhibits. We've got an exhibit coming in next year that's going to deal with the war -- the home front, the war effort on the home front."
Remember Dick Austin? When we first met him a year ago he was a volunteer.
[Austin] 'It's a bit of history. I'm going to be a part of it. Some of these airplanes are going to be hanging in the museum and I will say well, I helped work on that when it's hanging there. It's going to be great."
Now Dick Austin is a paid member of the restoration staff.
[Austin] "A lot of people envy me. I have a lot of friends who are in aviation and they just shake their head. What a job, you know, what a job So it's great."
Austin was an aircraft mechanic during the Korean War. He worked on the A-26 then.
[Austin] "That's 45 years ago. I can remember certain bolts and ppers, things like that. It's kind of amazing."
Many of the hundreds of volunteers who've worked on the restoration have similar stories to share. They're preserving more than planes.
[Haun] "You know, when you realize all the American fliers that lost their lives and the number of aircraft that were lost during World War II, it just pumps you up, you just want to really put it back into the condition it was just like a tribute to all of those individuals so there's a lot to drive you here."
As opening day approaches, the excitement grows for Denny Haun and the rest of the people who've worked hard to make the new SAC Museum a reality.
[Haun] "You know, our goal is to give the public a crown jewel of museums in the Midwest, and I think we got a good shot at it. It's awesome. It really is."

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.