27.3 Preserving Our Heritage (AFH-1 Section 24F)

Preserving Our Heritage (AFH 1, Section 24F)

Quick Answer: On the 15 February 2025 ADTC, Section 24F is B for Staff Sergeant and C for Technical Sergeant. The handbook names two institutions in 24.34–24.35: the Air Force Enlisted Heritage Research Institute inside the Enlisted Heritage Hall Museum at Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Alabama, and the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, dedicated by President George W. Bush on 14 October 2006. Do not import other famous museums into 24F — the 15 February 2025 handbook does not name them here.

Section 24F is not a second pass at the flag, the Air Force Symbol, or the Air Force Song. Ceremonies in 24D and drill in 24E are how Airmen perform heritage. This section is where the service stores and displays it.

Enlisted Heritage Research Institute and Hall (24.34)

At Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Alabama, the Air Force Enlisted Heritage Research Institute is a repository for Air Force enlisted history and heritage. It holds over 200,000 original documents and reference materials from balloon aviation to current operations. It is housed in the Air Force Enlisted Heritage Hall Museum, which AFH 1 calls the only enlisted-centric museum in the Air Force and a place of honor designed to remember and teach enlisted contributions to airpower.

The hall (Figure 24.5) is 14,000 square feet. It was developed by the Air Force Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy in 1983 in a building that was originally a 1942 segregated dining facility. Displays feature enlisted contributions to U.S. air and space missions. There are over 280 individual exhibits and over 3,000 artifacts, including the authentic medal from four of the eight enlisted Medal of Honors (handbook wording), a B-17 ball turret, a B-52 tail gun, and uniforms of former CMSAFs, POWs, Medal of Honor recipients, and Air Force Cross recipients.

CMSAF (ret) Wayne L. Fisk, first director of the hall, is quoted: "I cannot emphasize enough to the people in uniform—the fabric of our nation—they have not misplaced their trust in the defense of America and what we stand for."

Hold two clusters. Origin: SNCOA, 1983, 1942 segregated dining facility, Gunter Annex. Inventory: 200,000 documents, 14,000 square feet, 280-plus exhibits, 3,000-plus artifacts, four of eight enlisted Medals of Honor.

The Air Force Memorial (24.35)

The memorial in Arlington, VA, commemorates Airmen past, present, and future. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, members of the Air Force Association and the Air Force Sergeants Association realized there was no national memorial to the Air Force's air dominance. On 14 October 2006, fifteen years after that war, President George W. Bush dedicated the Air Force Memorial to Airmen.

Architect James I. Freed borrowed runway patterns from World War II airfields and kept the 5-pointed star prominent as it appears on aircraft, missiles, and enlisted chevrons. The star is centered at the base of three asymmetrical spires 201, 231, and 270 feet high. The spires stand opposite World War II quotes by Generals Billy Mitchel, Henry "Hap" Arnold, and Carl Spaatz (handbook spelling Mitchel).

Granite walls 10 feet high and 56 feet long bound the parade field. The northern wall theme is "Valor," listing aerospace Medal of Honor recipients and hometowns from World War I Lieutenants Bleckley, Goetler, Luke, and Rickenbacker through TSgt John A. Chapman, who died in Afghanistan in 2002. A glass contemplation wall shows the 4-ship missing man formation. The southern wall theme is Air Force Core "Values." Campaign walls list two centuries of combat and contingency operations.

Central to the memorial is the 16-foot bronze Honor Guard statue by Zenos Frudakis, a testimony to military courtesies, dress and appearance, and drill and ceremonies — and to people as what the service values most. President Bush's printed dedication: a Soldier can walk a battlefield and a Marine a beach, but an Airman cannot visit the patch of sky raced across on a mission, so the memorial is a place on the ground that recognizes achievements and sacrifices in the skies above.

Figure 24.6 is the memorial. After 24.35, Chapter 24 ends. Section 24F in this edition is these two institutions.

Staff Sergeant (ADTC B): locate both sites, recite the countable facts, and explain why each exists — the hall teaches enlisted contributions to airpower; the memorial gives Airmen a place on the ground. Technical Sergeant (ADTC C): comprehension still means matching enlisted artifacts to Gunter and the national memorial to Arlington, and rejecting a stem that plants some other museum in 24F.