While the whole idea behind the plaza and bricks made for a dramatic type of Museum entrance, the plaza bricks were a nightmare from an administrative point of view! I went to work at the Museum as the Administrative Assitant a couple of months after the grand opening. The first order of bricks was received and the bricks placed in the plaza prior to my first day ---- however, there were no real records of this order and it was huge! Someone had created a database, but because several people purchased multiple bricks and some in honor of each other (i.e. Joe Blow honored G.I. Joe with a brick and G.I. Joe honored Joe Blow with a brick), it was a crisscross mess in the database. There was no map created of where the bricks were placed which created huge problems when patrons showed up to see 'their' brick.  

 

Additionally each brick was to be acknowledged with a letter from 'someone' and a certificate that was to show exactly how the brick had been engraved. I say 'someone' because there was a tug-of-war going on for the priviledge of signing these hundreds of letters. While this tug-of-war raged on and we were getting ready to place the second brick order, I found out that precious few of the letters and certificates from the first brick order had actually ever been sent and that ALL the Museum administrative duties were approximately 6-9 months behind, and to make matters worse, I was not to let the airport know about it. I finally muddled through the letters, certificates and placed the second order, and in the mean time had set up a working database to catalogue the orders.

 

When the second brick order arrived, due to a lack of staff, they sat in the receiving area for months because we had no one to place them. Finally, when enough people complained about having paid for a brick but were not able to find it in the plaza the bricks would get placed. The same MO for the third order, with the exception that the Texas Tech University Army ROTC program bailed us out as reported in the Fall 2003 Newsletter.

All this being said - the bricks are a great deal and a neat way to honor a military vet or even a loved one. I personally purchased one for my father who served in the Korean War. I plan to make a trip back to the Musuem soon to take a picture and will post it here as an example of the bricks.

I wished I had pictures of the whole ordeal - as I'm sure my explaination will not be able to fully described the events that follow. In that I was not around when the grounds were being constructed, I can only guess (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) that proper allowances were not made for the placement of the seal. For months a huge round slab of concrete sat were the seal was supposed to be installed. When the seal finally arrived one day, the only solution to the problem was to remove the slab of concrete as it either sat up too high or too low - I can't remember. All I do remember, is for several days a huge crane sat out in front of the museum trying to pull up this round slab of concrete and the strange sight of seeing it just dangling in the air when they finally did get it out. We all just sat and wondered what they were going to do with it now and how much this whole ordeal was costing in terms of tax dollars!!! Soon, the seal was in place and while it looks very nice and did a nice job of completing the Plaza, I'm sure the final cost was staggering.

On the Exhibits - Plaza page I referred to a neat story behind the numbers on the concrete glider tail. I'm going to relate the story as best I can remember. During the War, of course much fund raising and rationing was going on in order to fund the War.  It became the mission of a grade school class to raise enough money to purchase a glider, which was accomplished through donated pennies. The number on the plaza glider is the same number on the glider purchased by the donated pennies. Neat little story, and I have no idea why it is not documented somewhere in the Museum.

If I have any of the details on this page incorrect, please feel free to email me and let me know so I can get it corrected.