Chennault Aviation and Military Museum

Background

The United States Army Air Force Navigation School opened in 1942 at Monroe Regional Airport, then known as Selman Field. It was the largest such training facility of its kind in the nation. Some 15,000 navigators graduated from Selman Field; more than 1,500 were killed in combat. The first Selman Field reunion was held in 1986. The veterans joined with the City of Monroe to establish a depository of memorabilia and artifacts to preserve the history of Selman Field.

The museum opened privately in 2000 at the corner of Kansas Lane and Central Avenue in one of the remaining structures of the Selman Field school. Since then, the facility expanded to include the aviation and military history of northeastern Louisiana. The structure is named for General Chennault, a native of Commerce, Texas, who was reared in Gilbert in Franklin Parish, and made Monroe his last official address prior to his death in New Orleans in 1958.

Financial concerns

From 2005 until 2015, the museum was operated through the office of the Louisiana Secretary of State. As of July 2015, the Chennault will return to the jurisdiction of the Ouachita Parish School Board, which owns the property and the buildings. The change is required because of $3.8 million in state budget cuts. Had the state kept jurisdiction, the museum could have opened only one day per week.

Nell Martien Calloway (born July 1950), the museum director and a granddaughter of General Chennault, said that the facility must now raise its own operating funds through private donations, annual memberships, and fundraisers. "With the cuts, we don't have much of a choice. I think this is a good move and we're excited about working with the school board. We've already started reaching out to the community to let them know about this jewel that has received national and international attention," Calloway said. The museum offers community programs beyond a mere location for the storage of materials.

In 2014, the museum received $116,000 in state funds, a third of its operating costs. Jerry Richard Hicks (born January 1942) of West Monroe, the school board president who was first elected to the panel in 1994, also serves on the Chennault Museum board of directors. He predicted that needed funding can be raised: "This museum and community work hand in hand to support our veterans. Everything that museum does is to honor veterans. I feel like we can support this — it's not a lot of cost involved when everyone pulls together."

Exhibits

In addition to the Chennault material, the museum offers exhibits on such individuals as former Governor James A. Noe, a veteran of World War I; Nelson Dyer Abell, Jr. (1923-2006) of Monroe; Burton Oliver Berry (1915-2001), a United States Navy lieutenant on the USS Texas (BB-35) who subsequently operated from 1949 until his death the St. Joseph Elevator Company in St. Joseph in his native Tensas Parish; Malcolm S. Biedenharn (1893-1950) of a prominent Monroe family, and Fred Carroll Culpepper, Jr. (1918-2002) of Monroe, a U.S. Army captain who received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Si Robertson (born 1948), a career U.S. Army soldier drafted in 1968 into the Vietnam War, retired in 1993 from a military career with the rank of Sergeant first class. He is one of the stars of the reality television series, Duck Dynasty. There is also an exhibit on one of the museum benefactors, businesswoman and philanthropist Kitty DeGree, who served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. The School of Nursing at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the Breast Health Center at St. Francis Hospital in Monroe are named in her honor.

The museum hosts various educational programs for children, including field trips and day camps. Adults may use a research library, an oral history program through the Library of Congress, and attend monthly public lectures. Located at 401 Kansas Lane, the museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. No admission is charged.