The Beginning of the End, Academically Speaking

From time to time I like to ramble a bit. So the several sections that follow below are not necessarily all related, but happened to be on my mind today.

–          It is that time of year again, when students return to school for another year of tests and learning. For some it’s a first, as they enter a new school or grade. For others it’s a last, as they start the end of their respective grade or education level. For me it is the beginning of the end, as I start my last semester of classes in graduate school (more on that later). It was great to see all the kids here over the past few months for summer camps. I have fond memories of summer camps, both as a participant and leader. The education department here at the Museum of Aviation offered plenty of events during the summer, and their fall education programs will be getting started soon as well. The people there do an excellent job and provide a great service to the local educational community.

–          As for me, on Wednesday of this week I returned to the classroom for the semester. I have been working on my Masters in Public History at the University of West Georgia for two years now, and along the way have earned a Museum Studies Certificate. It has been an interesting experience to say the least. The Museum Studies program at UWG is top-notch. The partnership the program shares with the Atlanta History Center provides students with the type of unique hands-on experience that is not offered in many other settings.

–          The Museum of Aviation is now on Twitter. We have had a consistent Facebook presence for a while now. Both of these mediums are great ways for us to provide you with instant updates and behind the scenes information. For my own part, I try to tweet at least once during the morning walk through with a picture of something around the museum that grabs my attention.  So if you are on Twitter and/or Facebook and aren’t already, make sure to follow us on both.

–          If you follow us on Twitter (shameless plug #1) you already know this by now, but we recently put the rotor blades back on our HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopter. The picture on the website has not been updated yet, but as you can see below it really changes the character of the aircraft to have the rotor blades back on; the Jolly Green Giant looks complete now.

That’s all from here for now. As documented through Twitter, (shameless plug #2) the look of Hangar One continues to evolve. We are moving around aircraft and continue to move towards the eventual goal of giving the hangar a greater focus on the Vietnam War. There will be more on the changes there and other exhibit and collections items later. Enjoy your week!