Sunday, September 28, 1997
New Visitors Center and Memorial Park to be
dedicated Monday
By BETH HALLMARK Staff Writer
A dedication ceremony will be held Monday for Dyess Air Force
Base's new Visitors Center and Memorial Park, Abilene's gift to
the base in honor of the Air Force's 50th anniversary.
Top Air Force officials and Abilene community leaders will
be on hand for the official ribbon cutting. Guests expected to
attend the 11:30 a.m. event include the Air Force's vice chief
of staff, Gen. Ralph Eberhart; Lt. Gen. Charles H. Roadman, the
Air Force surgeon general and U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm.
Funded with more than $300,000 in donations raised locally,
construction of the center and adjoining park began five months
ago.
The Abilene Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee,
which developed the project and spearheaded the fund-raising effort,
wanted the facility completed by September Ñ to be handed
over to Dyess during the month the Air Force celebrated its 50th
birthday.
"The Visitors Center and Memorial Park is a wonderful
gift and a testament to the relationship Dyess and Abilene enjoy,"
said Brig. Gen. Michael McMahan, Dyess' 7th Bomb Wing commander.
"The dedication ceremony sums up all the hard work the people
in this community have put into this project."
The 2,500-square-foot visitors center will feature video, photograph
and computer displays of Dyess' history and current operations.
"It will peel the veneer off Dyess and really show people
what we do here," said Col. Mark Williams, who helped coordinate
the project for Dyess. "It will be a way to come in and learn
a lot about the base in a user-friendly way."
The memorial park next door, approximately the same size as
the visitors center, should also draw attention, Williams said.
Partially covered and built of limestone with a nearby fountain,
the memorial park will honor Dyess personnel who have given their
lives in service to their country.
The park's walkway is paved with more than 1,000 memorial bricks
bearing the names of contributors, supporters and their families
and friends.
The bricks were sold to the public for $40 each to help pay
construction costs. Purchasers could have the bricks inscribed
with their own names or the names of those they wanted to honor
or memorialize.
With space for 8,000 memorial bricks on the walkway, more are
expected to be added over the years.
The Military Affairs Committee began developing the idea for
a visitors center last year after Dyess officials expressed a
need for such a facility to reduce traffic at the base's main
gate.
Following visits to similar facilities at other bases, Abilene
representatives decided to add a memorial park to the project.
Construction plans were announced in January.
"Within a few months we put the project together and had
the dollars committed," said Frank Puckett, Military Affairs
Committee chairman.
"That's the way the Abilene community has always responded.
When there's a need at Dyess and it's one the people in this town
can provide for, they've done it."
In 1986, $200,000 in private donations funded the construction
of a new main gate at Dyess. In recent years, local funds were
contributed to help refurbish the base's visitors quarters and
provide markers and plaques for the Linear Air Park.
Although the visitors center will be dedicated Monday, it is
not expected to open officially until November, Williams said.
And once fully operational, it will continue to be a work in
progress.
Future plans include possibly expanding the base's Linear Air
Park to link up with the visitors center and adding a museum or
heritage center nearby.
Because the visitors center is located on Arnold Boulevard
outside Dyess' main gate, visitors will not need base permission
to drop in.
"It will be available for people to come and see and hear
and feel the Dyess story," Puckett said.
In addition to the dedication ceremony, a joint Chamber of
Commerce/Dyess banquet Monday evening will also commemorate the
Air Force's 50th anniversary.
Gen. Eberhart is the banquet's guest speaker. Serving as the
Air Force's vice chief of staff since July, Eberhart is a member
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presides over the Air Staff.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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