We went to the Tualatin Wildlife Refuge on Monday, Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival on Wednesday and wound up the week at the Tillamook Air Museum on Thursday. This is how we break out of our winter lethargy. The freezing cold and dark, cloudy skies are broken up by sparkling sunny days and t-shirt temperatures so it's time to commune with our new state, Oregon. We've seen a lot of scenery, but now it's time to experience the people, places and things. Gabi has covered the refuge, tulips and, briefly, the air museum, so I will flesh out the latter because..... I'm retired and I want to.
Tillamook Air Museum grew out of the Tillamook Naval Air Station which housed a fleet of blimps during World War II. Two monstrous hangars were constructed (OUT OF WOOD) in 1943 and a fleet of 252 foot blimps (K-Class Airships) patrolled the Oregon-Washington coast for 3 days at a time, looking for enemy ships and submarines. The obstacles to cutting, transporting and milling of the mountains of trees needed for two 1,072' long by 296' wide by 192' high hangars were astonishing the threat of being invaded was very real until late in the war. As a side note, my parents lived in Honolulu and were expecting the city to be occupied after Pearl Harbor. Nobody knew we were going to win at first!
Anyhoo, we DID win the war, and some very considerate people saved the materials, documents, photos and movies of NAS Tillamook and set up a very impressive museum in 1992 in Hangar B. With planes, engines, vehicles, artillery and wonderful exhibits, visitors can see and feel what a dwindling number of veterans saw at the time.
Next month, we leave for Italy and France and we will be on the Normandy Beaches, in June, for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. This museum visit will be a fitting warm-up to celebrating what I think is the most important event of my lifetime. More in June...
Joe
