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The Hideaway Times: Article Thursday, August 30, 2001 DeLand museum preserves WWII historyBy MORRIS SULLLIVAN | News-Journal Correspondent Residents interested in local military history don´t have to wait until Sanford´s memorials are completed to pay their respects or learn about the past. The Navy also operated an airbase in DeLand during World War II, where the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum now stands. According to Grady Rowell, a volunteer curator at the museum, the Navy operated the airbase in DeLand from 1942 to 1946, using it mainly as a pilottraining facility. From 1943 to 1944, he said, the pilots trained on the SBD dive- bomber. More than a few, he said, died while learning to fly the planes. The museum is open from noon to 4:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and admission is free to the public. “During that period, they lost 40 men training here, in 27 crashes,” said Rowell. The museum is housed at the original Master of Arms house. “It was here in World War II,” said Rowell. “It was built in 1936, and is one of the three surviving original buildings.” The museum, he added, is “full of artifacts from WWII, mostly from the Navy base that was here during the war; we´ve even got a replica of the menu from Christmas day in 1945.” The museum sits near a hangar, which Rowell said is “also a museum. We have Korean War helicopters in that one.” “We have over 1,000 visitors a year,” Rowell continued. Many of the visitors are scout troops and school groups, he said, but “a lot of fellows that were here during the war come in.” The museum is open from noon to 4:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and admission is free to the public.
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