After closing under a storm of controversy in August, the much-loved Security Forces Museum will reopen for regular hours at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland this spring.
The facility will resume at its current location, Air Education and Training Command historian Gary Boyd said. The Airman Heritage Museum, which also closed this summer, will reopen at the same time with the goal of eventually combining the two museums into one under the consolidated name Airman Heritage Museum and Enlisted Character Development Center.
The Security Forces Museum began decades ago as a one-room homage to the service's largest career field in the library of the security police academy. It eventually grew into a museum inside old base barracks, which were renovated over the years. It also served as a memorial to Air Force police who died in the line of duty.
It closed in August after years of dwindling funds and shrinking staff, although airmen and visitors continued to use it for training and by appointment.
Former and retired security forces airmen said they were blind-sided by the closure. The Security Forces Museum Foundation, which raises money for the museum, stated on its Facebook page that members were just as surprised as everyone else.
Many responded to the closing by signing a White House petition asking AETC to rethink the decision. And more than 5,000 joined a "Save the Air Force Security Forces Museum" Facebook page begun by former Tech. Sgt. Greg Autry.
Boyd said at the time of the closings the best exhibits from both museums would be moved to an interim facility to open in the spring pending the construction of an 85,000-square-foot center on the north end of Lackland's parade field. That privately-funded facility could open as early as 2017.
An interim facility hasn't yet been found, although the search is still on; operating the museums separately will require splitting limited resources and paying for the upkeep of two buildings.
Until then, the museums will operate in their present locations beginning in the spring, Boyd said.
New staff "will begin to flow into the Museum in January 2015, and we'll be able to open for regular hours in Spring, as we prepare to meet the new mission of [Basic Military Training] Capstone Week and public visits," the historian said in an email. "We will have three enlisted and three civilian positions, plus one intern."
A chief master sergeant will oversee the effort. "Our goal is to build pride and heritage knowledge in our newest Air Force members," Boyd said.
Autry said in an email he understands budget constraints will force the Air Force to combine the two museums into one.
He is hopeful an interim facility and, eventually the new center, will maintain much of the present-day Security Forces Museum.
"Obviously there will be some give and take in order to include the other exhibits," he said.
Meanwhile, Autry and a handful of former Air Force police have begun an online museum at www.usafpolice.org.
"We are receiving photos and history from all eras of the security career field almost daily," he said. "We feel that the museum will never be complete as Security Force Members are making new history every day."
