By Ted Luebbers, EAA 875984
Unless you are a frequent visitor to the DeLand Municipal Airport in DeLand, Florida, you might never know there is a naval air museum located there.
If you fly in it is easy to miss, but if you drive to the airport you might be lucky enough to stumble upon it. It doesn’t look that big from the road, but if you stop and go in you will find the grounds extend back from the road quite a bit and it has a large restoration hangar in its backyard. Out front is a small building with a huge Navy anchor mounted on a pedestal and an F-14 Tomcat jet fighter beside the building.
A little history will help explain things at this point. The question is: Why is there a Naval Air Station Museum at the DeLand Municipal Airport? During World War II, the DeLand airport was a naval air station where personnel learned how to fly.
They started with the old Stearman biplane, then to the SNJ, which was the Navy version of the T-6 Texan, and then transitioned to the Douglas Dauntless SBD dive bomber. So, DeLand Municipal Airport started out as a naval air station training dive bomber pilots who eventually operated from aircraft carriers.
Not many of these Douglas SBD bombers survived WWII, so when you go to an air show today you do not often see one.
The museum’s mission is to preserve as much of this airport’s history with the Navy as possible. It also has become a rich repository of WWII books, aviation information, radios, flight equipment, declassified documents, and other artifacts. It has a lot of information on the Korean and Vietnam wars.
When you go out back you will find a 1950s-era T-33 jet trainer, and when you walk farther back to the restoration hangar you will find a WWII Grumman TBF Avenger in the process of being restored. There you will also find a haze-gray version of the old Willys Jeep, and hanging from the ceiling a Curtiss Jenny painted in traditional Navy colors.
The museum also has a huge naval vessel located on the property. It is a wooden PTF-3 motor torpedo boat that was used in the Vietnam War — just any PT boat, but one that took part in the Gulf of Tonkin battle that caused President Johnson to send more troops to Vietnam. It even has the declassified orders and mission designations that prove that boat took part in the battle. How cool is that?
This museum opened in 1995 and is listed in the National Register of Historic places.
I was lucky enough to meet the man that is the spark plug for this museum. His name is Harold Bradeen, age 84, and he is an archivist. Even though he was in the U.S. Army, not the Navy, they ought to give him a Navy medal of some type for the work he has done to hold this museum together and keep it moving ahead.
All you have to tell Harold is that you would like to research something about WWII or naval aviation and he will lead you to the correct books you need right there in the museum.
As an example of how complete a shop he runs, I commented on some WWII radio equipment they had on display, some of which I had owned as a ham radio operator and had purchased years ago on the war surplus market. He immediately reached down and pulled out a loose-leaf book he had put together with all the information he had on those radios, including service manuals.
I recommend stopping by to take a look at this little museum if you are ever in the area. It is a place you could spend several entertaining hours if you have an interest in military history.
The DeLand Naval Air Station Museum is located at the DeLand Municipal Airport but best reached by car at 910 Biscayne Boulevard, DeLand, Florida. It is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. You can reach it by email or learn more at its website.