Museum awarded for aerospace education

Greene County News

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The National Museum of the United States Air Force recently received the Air Force Association‘s (AFA) 2016 Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award in recognition of the museum’s outstanding contributions to aerospace education.

Museum Director Lt. Gen. (Ret) Jack Hudson accepted the award presented by Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James during the AFA’s 2016 Air, Space and Cyber Conference held in National Harbor, Maryland. Also present were U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen David L. Goldfein and Scott P. Van Cleef, AFA Chairman of the Board.

The award recognizes the museum’s “unique exhibits and collections” and its continual improvement to “preserve Air Force history and honor Airmen.”

“We applaud your dedication to collecting, researching, conserving, interpreting and presenting the Air Force’s history, heritage, and traditions, and for the opening of the fourth hangar this year at the museum,” Van Cleef said when announcing the award to the museum.

The museum opened its new $40.8 million 224,000 square ft. fourth building in June 2016, which houses more than 70 aerospace vehicles in four new galleries — Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with three science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Learning Nodes.

“It is a great honor for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force to join the impressive list of Hoyt S. Vandenberg award recipients,” said Hudson.

“The museum works hard to inspire youth toward our Air Force and STEM through our education programs and we generate more than 160,000 educational encounters annually. With our new STEM Learning Nodes, we can better accommodate student-centered, technology-enhanced learning through hands-on programs, demonstrations and lectures. And the new fourth building adds tremendously to the museum’s existing galleries, furthering enhancing our ability to tell the Air Force story.”

The Vandenberg Award, one of AFA’s highest honors, was established in 1948 and past recipients include General Carl A. Spaatz, first U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff (1951); Lt. Gen James H. Doolittle, USAF, Ret (1953); Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB (1980); and HQ Air Education and Training Command (AETC) Technical Training Division, Randolph AFB, Texas (2003).

Submitted photo Director of the National Museum of the United States Air Force Lt. Gen.(Ret.) Jack Hudson holds the Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award, which was presented by the Air Force Association in September 2016.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2016/09/web1_160926-F-IO108-002.jpgSubmitted photo Director of the National Museum of the United States Air Force Lt. Gen.(Ret.) Jack Hudson holds the Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award, which was presented by the Air Force Association in September 2016.

Story courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.