Now that I have your attention with that evocative title...
When I am at my job at a drive-thru, I often flip through the Dayton Daily News when there are no customers to wait on. When I was going through today's edition, I noticed an article that seemed very suited to our discussions in public history. Apparently, the Air Force has recently cracked down upon what it views as inappropriate displays in public. That essentially means that you can't have pinup figures or curse words on such things as aircraft, vehicles, lockers, etc, etc. There was some question as to whether this meant that the Air Force museum would have censor its aircraft. The rule has been clarified so that the Air Force Museum will not have to remove any perceived inappropriate displays from its aircraft. This would have included, among others, the pinup figure on the nose of the B-17F "Memphis Belle", currently in restoration, and the name of the B-24D in the World War II gallery called "Strawberry Bitch". The article quotes Col. Cassie Barlow, who is the CO of C-17 wing over at WPAFB, as saying that "I think it is part of the tradition and history of the Air Force museum is just that... That's our history. We're not going to go back and change those things because that's part of our history and that's an important part of our organization. I think the museum will keep the displays that they have just as they are." Personally, I am glad that this decision was made, since the art and names, however inappropriate, have been a part of Air Force culture since World War II, and keeping them in place keeps the aircraft true to that time period. Chalk up a victory then for public history.
The full article can be viewed here:
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/pin-ups-wont-be-removed-from-historical-planes/nTQQJ/
I'm sure that there are many people out there who would feel that the removal of the nose art of these aircraft removes what makes them distinctive. For instance, to remove the art off of the Memphis Belle, sure the plane may have been the historic plane but to the casual viewer it is now just another B-17. Art like that is also a significant part of the interpretation of the planes, this is what they were fighting to preserve. It is one thing to censor what is shown in a cubicle, but when it comes to historical items like these planes, is it right?
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