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JBSA News
NEWS | July 6, 2020

Staff members at JBSA museums keep busy despite lockdown

By David DeKunder 502nd Air Base Public Affairs

In normal circumstances, George Wunderlich would be greeting and meeting a constant stream of visitors, service members and dignitaries daily at the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

Wunderlich, AMEDD Museum director, now walks through mostly quiet and empty hallways at the museum, the result of having to close its doors to the public for the time being because of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic.

“Usually, we are here greeting members of the public and Soldiers for events,” Wunderlich said. “We almost have 20,000 people a year coming here, just for ceremonies and events. It’s just strange; it has never been so quiet.”

Historians and staff members at museums throughout JBSA have had to adjust since shutting their doors to visitors in March because of the pandemic.

Since JBSA is at Health Protection Condition Charlie, or HPCON C, the doors of those museums, including the AMEDD Museum, the Fort Sam Houston Museum and the Airman Heritage Museum at JBSA-Lackland, will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future.

Even though JBSA museums are not accepting visitors for the time being, historians and staff members at those museums are keeping themselves busy with plenty of projects to do.

Wunderlich said he is the only AMEDD Museum staff member working at the museum daily. He said he needs to be at the museum so maintenance personnel from the 502nd Civil Engineering Squadron can continue to conduct inspections of air conditioning units, conduct updates of various systems within the building, and do maintenance checkups.

The remaining AMEDD Museum staff members are teleworking, conducting paperwork, or performing research on topics for museum exhibits and interpretative displays. They have also been able to conduct an inventory of museum artifacts as required by the U.S. Army Center for Military History, which oversees Army museums across the country.

The AMEDD Museum, which is part of the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, has opened its doors for a few exceptions, such as limited training for MEDCoE service members and a special event in late June for the assumption of command of U.S. Army Medical Command by the Surgeon General of the Army. 

Wunderlich said training has been limited to groups of 10 or less and that events at the museum have been limited to groups of 50 or less. When the museum has had training or hosted a special event, social distancing and safety guidelines have been followed, including the requirement that people wear a mask.

Jacqueline Davis, Fort Sam Houston Museum director, said she has been working on organizing the museum’s inventory and archives during the museum's closure.

With the work that has been done on the museum’s inventory, Davis said most of it is in good and stable condition.

“This is the first 100 percent inventory we have done in a long time,” Davis said. “I feel more confident about our inventory now.”

While Davis has kept herself busy at the museum, Fort Sam Houston Museum curator, Dr. Bryan Howard, has been working from home updating the museum’s internal online records system to follow guidelines set by the U.S. Army Center for Military History.

Davis said updating and organizing the Fort Sam Houston Museum online records will allow other Army museums to easily identify artifacts in the Fort Sam Houston Museum collection. In turn, the Fort Sam Houston Museum will be able to easily review other Army museums’ collections, which could allow for the borrowing of artifacts and materials.

While teleworking, Howard has been able to update and work on some museum exhibit graphics. Once the graphics are completed, he has been able to send them to the museum’s shared drive where Davis accesses and prints them and places them on the exhibits.

While the museum has not been able to host special events, Davis said they are permitted to allow service members from U.S. Army North to come by for specific training purposes in which social distancing guidelines are followed. The museum primarily supports U.S. Army North.

At the Airman Heritage Museum, which is part of the Airman Heritage Training Complex at JBSA-Lackland, work on exhibit projects have been conducted despite their closure.

Bill Manchester, Airman Heritage Training Complex director, said the museum has been able to make progress on several projects and conduct an inventory because all six of the staff members from the Airman Heritage Training Complex, which includes the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Exhibit Annex Museum and a museum warehouse on the JBSA-Chapman Training Annex, have been able to work from the complex by following social distancing guidelines and spreading out in their work areas.

Progress on exhibit projects includes the rebuilding of the Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training, or BEAST, exhibit, and the completion of two new exhibits, “The Women in the Air Force” gallery and “Friend or Foe,” an interactive exhibit.

Also, museum staff members have done research on two projects, one on static aircraft within the Southeast Asia Air Park, which has been moved to a new location at JBSA-Lackland, and another for two new historical display cases, which were built by staff members, at the Air Education Training Command Headquarters at JBSA-Randolph.

The Airman Heritage Museum has been open during the pandemic to basic military training flights to provide additional training in history and heritage to trainees.

Because the museum can’t open to the public, Manchester said he misses interacting with the visitors who come to the museum, including the family members of trainees, military retirees and veterans.

“We’re a big recruiting tool with the ability to interact with the public and talk to a young Airman’s family,” Manchester said. “We got to instill our Air Force history into them. I miss that.”