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New Heritage Hall displays unveiled

  • Published
  • By Keith Barr
  • Air Force Reserve Command staff historian
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Visitors to Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command have an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the Air Force Reserve's history as result of new heritage displays installed earlier this summer.

The displays include artifacts and uniforms worn by Air Force reservists during the Vietnam War era, Operation Just Cause, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the Global War on Terrorism. Headquarters AFRC inaugurated the Heritage Hall on Dec. 15, 2011, in the main headquarters building.

The Vietnam display is a tribute to medical and aeromedical services performed by Air Force Reserve nurses and the evacuations of U.S. prisoners of war on the famous C-141 Starlifter, known as the "Hanoi Taxi."

Lt. Col. Kathleen C. Clancy and Maj. Judith Sohm donated most of these artifacts. Sohm, the author of Number Ten: A Vietnam Diary, is noted for her efforts to gain recognition for women in the services.

Another case features items from Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm donated by retired Maj. Gen. Clay McCutchan. The case contains spent ordnance, including a 40mm gun shell casing, a memento of Operation Just Cause.

McCutchan was a major, an air commando and a pilot of an AC-130 gunship in the Air Force Reserve on the night of Dec. 19-20, 1989. He and his crew observed three armored vehicles and some troops on the ground. The forward air controller cleared McCutchan to "take them out." Suspecting the soldiers were friendly, McCutchan withheld fire saving the lives of several men.

"I was convinced I was going to get court-martialed because three times I disobeyed a direct order to fire," he recalled.

McCutchan's commander met him and his crew when they landed at dawn.

"You're either a hero or in a lot of trouble," the commander told McCutchan.

As it turned out, the troops seen from the air were indeed friendlies. McCutchan received the Distinguished Flying Cross for having the moral courage and integrity not to fire, even when ordered to do so.

Another display is about a famed three-ship raid during Desert Storm. McCutchan, Maj. Michael N. Wilson and Capt. George F. Williams flew the first ship. Capt. Richard S. Haddad and 1st Lt. Randal L. Bright were on the second ship, and Lt. Col. Lawrence Muench was on the third ship. The display features a belt of expended 20mm shell casings fired at fleeing Iraqi invaders by McCutchan's crew over the Al Jahra-Basra Road Feb. 26, 1991, during the action known as "Hit Night."

More than 20 years later, Haddad recalls the call he got from the first ship that night.

"Hurry up! Get up here!" said Haddad about the experience. "It was everything that you would think war to be. The intensity, the adrenaline was a thrill for the crew. Finally, we were employing our many years of training and experience!"

The Global War on Terror case contains a flight jacket carried or worn on Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, also donated by McCutchan.

On view as well are artifacts from the 2001 Afghanistan Humanitarian Relief Operation given to the Heritage Hall by Col. Bruce A. Bowers Jr., commander of the 446th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. He participated in the C-17 Globemaster III airdrops of humanitarian goods to displaced persons in eastern and northern Afghanistan in the early weeks of Operation Enduring Freedom.

"We were coming in from high altitudes with a penetration-type profile, a leveling off with a large formation in relatively short confines of the drop zone," Bowers said. "Then, immediately as you departed the drop zone, you would go into a max effort climb to mitigate the risk associated with ground fire."

A one-of-a-kind AFRC 60th Anniversary quilt is on display. Col. Patricia Blassie, commander of the Air Reserve Personnel Center, Buckley AFB, Colo., donated the quilt on behalf of the center's men and women in honor of retired Lt. Gen and Mrs. Charles E. Stenner Jr. The general is the former chief of Air Force Reserve and AFRC commander.

The AFRC art collection also has been rotated to present a variety of historical artwork stressing the accomplishments of Air Force Reserve Airmen.

Current and former Air Force reservists interested in permanently donating artifacts or gifts to the National Museum of the United States Air Force may contact the AFRC Directorate of Historical Services at (478) 327-2192.

Heritage Hall heroes - where they are today

Capt. Richard S. Haddad is now a major general and is director of strategic plans, programs and requirements at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. In mid-August 2012 he will become the deputy to the chief of Air Force Reserve in the Pentagon.

Capt. George F. Williams is a major general and mobilization assistant to the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla.

Maj. Michael N. Wilson is a major general and MA to the commander of 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Capt. Randal L. Bright is a colonel and the chief of the plans division in the AFRC plans directorate.

Lt. Col. Lawrence Muench retired from the Air Force at the rank of lieutenant colonel.