As Facebook randomly changes the hours listed, please call the museum to confirm before you come. Staff Report
Whether Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines, both former and current have a place they can visit here in Pampa to pay homage to their brothers-in-arms and recall their service times. The Freedom Museum recognizes all branches of the military and has nostalgic
items from all the wars. Opened in 1994, the Freedom Museum was founded by the Pampa Army Airfield reunion group and the Pampa Veterans of Foreign Wars. As well as remembering those who were stationed at the base, the purpose of the museum is “to collect, acquire, preserve and exhibit items of historical nature to America’s war efforts.” It is also to “educate each generation as to the efforts and sacrifices of war and to inscribe in their minds the cost of peace; to honor Americans in wars past; to preserve freedom by remembering the past; and to provide a tourist attraction for the City of Pampa, Texas.”
The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, but will open for special tours if needed. The museum has an average of 25 visitors a day.
“We had 800 young folks in here in one day [when the Vietnam remembrance wall was visiting Pampa],” curator Andy Epps said. “It was a very educational experience for them as well as us, because their questions really allowed us to understand how much they did not have knowledge of. They asked some really interesting questions.” Each year many school children visit the museum on field trips. The building in which the museum is housed was built in 1939, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Alphabet Soup” policies and projects that had acronyms for names and came into order shortly after he was elected. It was built as a water pump station for the City of Pampa. How it evolved:
Over time as the Pampa Army Air Field Museum Inc. formed in 1987 and the local VFW joined in 1990, their efforts started to take off. They formed the Hall of Fame, now the Hall of Honor, and then opened the museum in 1994. At time of its opening, the museum had the UH-1H Huey Helicopter, which was active in Vietnam, and the M110 self-propelled 8” howitzer. Since then, the museum has acquired a WWII submarine periscope, a McDonnell-Douglas B-25D, Norden Bomb sight, M2A1 Halftrack, a Sikorsky HH-3F helicopter (the Coast Guard helicopter), a US Army H-446 Crane, F4E Phantom II fighter, 1951 M38 Korean War Jeep, WWII 1943 Ford Jeep, M60A1 Patton tank, an F-105 Thunderchief fighter bomber, B52 nuclear bomb case, 76mm T-124 Anti-Tank Gun and four M998 HMMWVs (Humvee). There is also an assortment of several other battle armaments and uniform collections. The Freedom Museum in Pampa, along with ones in Amarillo and in Liberal, Kansas, are among the handful of military museums in the Great Plains region. Epps did say that there are not many museums that try to cover all the branches of the military.
“We try to cover them all,” Epps said. “Even though we started for just Pampa Army Airfield, in the old days that was the Army Air Corps., which later became our Air Force. As it moved forward joining forces with the VFW, it was decided to remember everyone, of all branches of the service.”
Where the money comes from:
The museum functions solely on donations. The museum is required by the federal government to have one full-time employee or they will lose all their displays and exhibits. That employee is Ron Howell, a retired law enforcement officer who served in the US Army in Vietnam. Howell enjoys guiding visitors through the museum and relaying stories about various exhibits. When entering the museum, guests are greeted by either Epps, Howell or one of several volunteers who are always enthusiastic about their museum. If the tour starts on the right, tourists are taken into the Waters-Holt Room which contains the Hall of Honor and the two jeeps as well as a full-size diorama representing a jungle camp in Vietnam. The Hall of Honor has recently been upgraded and can now be accessed digitally in house and online. This room is also used to display any special exhibits which may be ongoing. The current exhibit is “Vietnam-The Real Stories.” Various artifacts for all wars are contained in the display cases. Cutting across the front of the museum are models, uniforms and two ejection seats. Entering the West side of the museum, there is a model and pictures from the old Pampa Army Air Field, or the “Eagles’ Nest of the High Plains.” Circling the room are more uniforms, pictures and artifacts. Opposite the entrance is a gateway to a compound full of military history. Residing there are the half-track, a military crane, a truck, the B53 nuclear bomb case, and the B-25 bomber plane. Across the street is a compound next to the Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Home are two additional aircraft, the F-4E which represents the aircraft which Pampan Jimmy Ayres was piloting at the time he was shot down during the Vietnam War and the F-105D which actually saw service in Vietnam. The HMMWVs are also parked in this enclosure. Freedom Museum USA is one of the premier military museums in the Texas Panhandle. Hobart in Pampa, Texas, it is within easy reach of anyone traveling through this area. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from Noon until 4:00 p.m. Special tours can be arranged by calling (806) 669-6066. If you are just passing through or are new to the area and have not yet visited the Freedom Museum, please do so. If it has been a while since your last visit, please stop by and enjoy the new acquisitions and updated exhibits.
