Extend Your Memorial Day Commemorations with Visit to Yankee Air Museum

The Memorial Day Parade in Saline returned to Oakwood Cemetery this year. Appropriately so. [1]

Better still, hopefully your interest in the underlying substance of service and sacrifice has been piqued by that event. Where were key military conflicts played out? Why? Who were some of the people who made these great sacrifices in service to American freedom?

Yankee Air Museum provides many answers to those important questions. [2]

Located seventeen miles east-northeast of Saline, Yankee Air Musuem is in Belleville on what used to be the grounds of the Willow Run bomber plant. On Twitter its work is described as teaching “guests about aviation technology and the importance of flight through past wars and the emergence of commercial aviation in the US.” [3,4,5,6,7]

This is a dynamic museum, meaning that visitors are able to see aircraft in the vary earliest stages of restoration as well as highly detailed exhibits. There are also temporary showings, such as the Smithsonian traveling “Mail Call” exhibit, here through August 6. [8,9,10]

Further putting a human face on this, Yankee Air Museum defends its claim as home to “Rosie the Riveter” as history and icon. [11,12]

Rosie the Riveter was the star of a campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for defense industries during World War II, and she became perhaps the most iconic image of working women. American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during the war, as widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. [13]

More broadly, the Yankee Air Museum mission is to:

• Preserve the American and regional aviation heritage and tell its stories.
• Preserve part of the Willow Run Bomber Plant for future generations; offer a historical interpretation of the structure and site that puts the extraordinary Willow Run story into its larger economic, social, and cultural history context.
• Create and present exciting, engaging, family-friendly exhibits and programs for community, corporate, and family events. [14]

Saline Journal has provided tips on how to photograph historic aircraft on display. If you’d like to help share the Willow Run bomber plant through images of your own, be sure to include the #YankeeAirMuseum hashtag on social media. [15,16,17,18]

Yankee Air Museum is located 17 miles east-northeast of Saline.

References

1. “Most Important Part of Memorial Day Was Missed During 2016 Parade” Dell Deaton (May 31, 2016) Saline Journal.
2. Yankee Air Museum (home page).
3. “PBS to air documentary about Ypsilanti’s legendary Willow Run B-24 bomber factory” Katrease Stafford (March 9, 2013) The Ann Arbor News.
4. “Encyclopedia of Detroit: Willow Run” Detroit Historical Society.
5. “History of Willow Run Airport” (Spring 2008) National Airlines: Plane Talk.
6. Save The Willow Run Bomber Plant (home page).
7. “Yankee Air Museum” Twitter.
8. “Exhibits” Yankee Air Museum.
9. “Mail Call: History of America’s Military Mail” Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
10. “Smithsonian’s Mail Call heading to Yankee Air Museum” Perry A Farrell (April 24, 2017) Detroit Free Press.
11. “Yankee Air Museum vows to reclaim Rosie world record” (September 17, 2015) USA Today.
12. “Yankee Air Museum Seeks Original Rosies To Tell Their Stories” (March 27, 2017) CBS Detroit.
13. “Rosie The Riveter” History.
14. “About the Collection” Yankee Air Museum.
15. “Air Zoo Museum Is an Ideal Place to Hone Aircraft Photography Skills” Dell Deaton (April 28, 2017) Saline Journal.
16. A-4 Skyhawk Association (home page).
17. “Type of jet Sen. John McCain flew now at Yankee Air Museum” (December 3, 2016) Detroit Free Press.
18. National Naval Aviation Museum (home page).