Logansport Pharos-Tribune from Logansport, Indiana • Page 5

Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Indiana, Sunday, July 25, 1993 Page A5 THE PRICE OF PEACE BENEFITS Base Realignment Means Loss Of Some Benefits Commissary, base exchange, medical clinic will be gone, but bealtn insurance will still be provided By AMY BELL Pharos-Tribune Regional Reporter Brian Van Camp lives on base. He buys his food at the commissary and department store goods at the BX, or base exchange, and works out at the gym. He goes to the health clinic when he needs to see a doctor. Van Camp, who retired a few weeks ago, and 3,000 other retirees in Miami and Howard counties 'Won't be able to rely on the facilities on base for their health, shopping and recreational needs much longer. When the active-duty 305th Air Ee- fueling Wing leaves the base in September 1994, all those benefits will be gone, too.

Though the Air Force Reserves will remain on the base, the services available during the base's active-duty span will shut down. Retirees can still travel to other bases, such as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio or Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, and use the facilities there. In addition to the facilities Van Camp uses, the benefits available to active duty and retired military personnel also include auto hobby and craft shops and a swimming pool. The commissary will close on May 28, 1994, and while the amount of merchandise at the BX will soon begin winding down, it will remain open as long as it is breaking even. Most of the other facilities will remain open as long as possible, however, according to Col.

Marc Drinkhahn, commander of the 305th. A group of people is studying how long the facilities can be kept open as the base realigns. "As we drawdown the, number of active duty folks, keep those things open," Drihkriahii" The clinic will close to retirees, but remain open for active duty personnel, on Oct. 1. Three physicians will remain at the clinic to take care of active duty personnel through July 1, 1994.

Drinkhahn describes the clinic as a family practice, a place where people Andy Area retirees won't be able to use the on-base facilities, including the personalized care system at the medical clinic. can see a general practitioner and then get a referral to a specialist if one is needed. The clinic also provides optical and dental care. All military personnel and their families receive health insurance through CHAMPUS, or Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services. CHAMPUS pays 80 percent of medical expenses for military personnel and their families.

Once members of the armed services turn Right now, the clinic operates 'oiji'a. space-available says. Many retirees, who have the option of going to a local doctor anyway, are already going to one. Active duty personnel must go to the clinic on base first. Retirees are being given a list of doctors in their areas who accept CHAMPUS or Medicare.

"What trying to do is get them lined up with family doctors in the local community," he says. Once the clinic closes to retirees in October, Drinkhahn predicts fewer retirees use the other facilities on base. For example, he knows retirees who come down from Michigan to go to the clinic and stop by the commissary and the BX. "Now, it's not worth the effort," he says. Military personnel save 20 percent by shopping, at; the BX instead of area department 20 percent by shopping.at the instead of a supermarket.

Goods bought at either place also are tax-free. The reserves will have a small BX, "like a Super 7-Eleven," Drinkhahn says, for some clothes and other goods. "I personally wish they would keep the commissary, because we do save a lot at the commissary," says Sgt. David Curl, who will be retiring from the Air Force in December. He says he may go to Wright-Patterson once a month to go shopping.

And until he gets another job, and the medical benefits that come with it, Curl says he and his family will continue to utilize CHAMPUS. Curl, like Van Camp, has chosen to remain here after he retires even though he will be losing some privileges once the base realigns. Because he lives in Mexico, Curl says, he doesn't use much other than the commissary and the BX. Curl has been in the Air Force for 20 years, and has been stationed at Grissom since 1988. A California native, he has been stationed in Vietnam, Cambodia, California, Florida, Oklahoma and Okinawa before coming here, where he has decided to stay.

On April 1, he purchased the pizza and ice cream parlor in Mexico, and he "I personally wish they would keep the commissary, because we do save a lot at the comrms- David Curl Sgt. David Curl Retiring from the USAF in December also has purchased a home there. Both Curl and Van Camp say they- like the community and the small- town atmosphere. They also do not want to pull their children out of the local schools for another move. Because of the availability of housing on the base, the military is letting Van Camp continue to live there and pay rent through next summer even though he has retired.

As far as the other aspects of his lifestyle, Van Camp is not too concerned about the base realignment and the loss of the benefits there, as he has chosen to stay in this area anyway. He and his wife had always planned to be as independent as possible from the military after he retired. "By being independent, I'm not forced to follow the military. I can follow the job market instead of the military drawdown," he says. Van Camp was in the Air Force for "19 years, nine months and five days," and has been at Grissom since 1986.

He has been stationed in New Mexico, Germany, Maine and Iceland, and did a six-month tour of duty in Saudi Arabia while here. He and his wife are both from the Indianapolis area, so they are interested in staying in the Peru area. He is working on a degree in computer science at Indiana University-Kokomo, and she recently received a degree in elementary education. "I didn't want to move my family anymore, and it's time to try something different with my life," he says. MUSEUM Keeping The Museum Flying Grissom Airpark Vital information Future of air museum uncertain as base realigns By AMY BELL Pharos-Tribune Regional Reporter For 11 years now, just about every Saturday, Tfeifi-P-srcQW makes a round-trip journey of 2 to 3 hours from his home in Nappanee to £he Grissom Airpark.

While at the airpark, he works with a paintbrush to restore what time and nature have taken away from the military airplanes on display at the outdoor museum. He also works on the different emblems used over the years by the 305th Air Refueling Wing, which are on display inside the museum building. The rest of the week, Parrow, himself an Army veteran, drives a delivery truck for the recreational vehicle and mobile home industry. He has always been fascinated by aircraft, he says, and military planes in particular. Parrow says volunteering his Saturdays at the museum is a payback.

He often catches people gazing at a particular plane or exhibit, lost in thought. Parrow speculates that, perhaps, the far-away gazes come from people who were in the military. "For me, maybe it's being able to sustain that picture for them," he says. Parrow often talks to the museum's visitors. "I get a kind of rejuvenating energy from listening to the older people talking," he says.

"You can see the energy in their faces." As the base realigns, the future of the museum, whose planes are on loan to the 305th Air Refueling Wing from the Air Force, remains uncertain. The 305th will be leaving the base in September 1994. The goal in the meantime is to transfer the loan of the airplanes from the 305th to the Heritage Museum Foundation before the realignment is complete. "In all honesty, right now it's in a state of flux," says Geoffrey Hays, coordinator of the Air Force Museum Program. The program, which Air Force museums across the country, is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

The 305th now provides utilities, grounds maintenance, paint, tools and other supples, as well as a curator. The rest of the work done at the museum maintaining the planes and other exhibits, giving tours is all done by volunteers. The museum relies on donated time and money to survive. The museum also relies on a core of 16 volunteers, and another 25 or so also help out, says teer. He has been volunteering his time at the museum for three years.

He was a fighter pilot in Italy during World War II and then joined the reserves; he retired from the reserves almost nine years ago. To keep the museum open, and to maintain its collection of airplanes, the Heritage Museum will have to meet several criteria, according to Hays. The Air Force would like to turn the aircraft over from the 305th to the foundation by April 1,1994, he says. As of that date, the museum would be run as a civilian rather than a military organization. Within the next few weeks, Hays says he will be meeting on base with members of the foundation to work out the criteria for the foundation to accept the aircraft.

For the museum to succeed without the support of the Air Force, Hays says the museum will need; source of funding, raised through admissions and fund-raising. The museum is free now, asking only for donations, but admission of some sort will need to be charged in the paid curator, someone who can sign for the loan of the aircraft. The museum can have the airplanes for free as long as they are maintained. year's operating expenses, including the curator's salary. Church estimates this at about $50,000, with $30,000 going for the salary, $8,000 for utilities, which are now provided by the Air force, and the remaining $12,000 for supplies, maintenance and other costs.

commitment that the land and the museum building, which was constructed through donated money and materials by the museum foundation, will remain available for the displays. The Foundation The Heritage Museum Foundation, Inc; was founded in 1981 by John Crume of Kokomo. It repairs, restores and maintains the vintage aircraft displayed at the base. The foundation is made up of military and civilian members who preseTvyngViigroTSi. H.

the foundation and its collection grew, it became apparent that a museum building was needed. In 1989, the foundation started constructing what is now the Grissom Air Museum building. Members of the foundation volunteer their time for aircraft maintenance, as tour clerical work, restoration and other tasks. For more information, stop by the museum orcall (317) 688-2654. The Airpark The airpark, located off U.S.

31 at the main gate to the base, houses 18 airplanes, many of are significant to the base. The collection includes the B-17G, known as the "Flying Fortress," which was the first type of aircraft flown by the.305th Air Refueling Wing in World War II. Many of the planes are complete, with engines and all, and techniques have been undertaken to preserve them. Some of the planes have items taken from the inside, but have retalnedTfielr oxft- ward appearance. Many of the planes on the base were flown in; some were disassembled and shipped.

The museum building houses a gift shop, library, theater- and displays military uniforms, photos and artifacts gathered over the years. Who Visits Visitors come to the museum from all over-Indiana; Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. They also come in from across the country as well as several foreign countries. During July 1992, almost 1 ,200 people visited the museum, and that includes only the people who signed the guest book, according to information compiled by the museum staff for a feasibility study done in late 1 992 on how to keep the museum going. Visitors include singles, couples, families with small children, veter- and base personnel, business people who travel and casual trav-- elers.

Those come to the base include school, community and church groups, campers from near-by facilities and other groups such as home economic clubs. Hours The museum building is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The airpark is open every day from dawn to dusk.

Donations are accepted. Sources: Museum literature and Geoffrey Hays, coordinator of the Air Force Museum Program "That shows there is community support to this effort," Hays says. "Where there is support, there is more likely to be success." A trial time period will be established for how long the foundation can keep the planes. If, after that time period, the museum meets the criteria set up by the Air Force Museum Program, the planes will remain in the airpark, on loan to the Heritage Museum Foundation. If the effort somehow fails, the Air Force has three options for what to do with the planes at Grissom.

The Air Force could try to relocate the aircraft to other military bases. Two or three would be left as "gate guards" to commemorate the base, Hays says. Those planes would be offered to the Reserves for care and maintenance. planes also could be donated to another program that provides military aircraft for civilian sites other than museums, such as municipalities, or to organizations, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The third option, which Hays calls "least desirable," is to dispose of the planes through the defense disposal program for scrap or sale.

"In all honesty, it's in our best interest to see the foundation succeed, because they will take care of our aircraft," Hays says. Air museums at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, and Castle Air. Force Base in Merced, also will become civilian-run organizations as of April 1,1994, so the people trying to keep the museum at Grissom going will not be facing their struggle alone. Those museums are also undergoing changes because of base realignment or closure. But Hays says the success rate of such ventures is not yet known.

"The jury's still out, because we have not, at any of the locations, turned any of the collections over to a civilian group.".