Fort Bragg's Airborne & Special Operations museum weighs expansion
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Fort Bragg officials are quietly working on a plan to expand the Airborne & Special Operations Museum.
Each year, more than 170,000 people tour the Army-owned museum, which opened in 2000. The museum is widely viewed as a catalyst for downtown Fayetteville's revitalization that has resulted in new restaurants, shops, residences and parks.
Now, Fort Bragg is developing a five-year strategic plan for the museum that may include expanding its exhibits and adding on to the building. Army planners are not discussing any details publicly until they complete a plan, perhaps by next year.
The history of the airborne forces and the Army's special operations continues to be written, and the museum's mission is "to relay that history to the public, and periodically we have found it necessary to look at ways of expanding our display, preservation and educational areas," Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum said in a statement.
Mike Lynch, director of plans, training, mobilization and security at Fort Bragg, is leading the plan.
"We are currently in the preliminary stages of looking at that now," Lynch said in an email. "Before moving beyond the initial stages, we need to address a large number of areas, such as funding, our current available space within the footprint of our building and, if necessary, our ability to increase by expanding our building."
It's unclear how much space the Army would like to add to the 59,000-square-foot building, which is on a 1.67-acre tract at Bragg Boulevard and Hay Street. The tract does not include the parking lot, which is on city-owned land and is shared by the museum and North Carolina Veterans Park, which opened last year.
Lynch said that before any final decision is made, "we'll coordinate this with city and military officials to ensure we have a plan that can be supported."
The concept for the museum began in 1982, and it was originally to go up on Fort Bragg. More than $22 million in public and private money was raised for the project, and in 1998 ground was broken for the museum. The land was once the site of a row of bars that had marred downtown's image.
The museum features a helicopter hanging from overhead and a diorama depicting a Special Forces hide-site during the Persian Gulf War. Visitors can stroll through a French village replica from the Normandy Invasion of June 1944 and watch videos of a changing collection of stories about the airborne and special operations.
One day this week, David Patten, 48, walked out of the museum with a handful of brochures. The self-described military historian was visiting Fayetteville from Manchester, N.H.
"For a military history buff, it's as good as it gets," he said. "If they are going to expand it, it can only get better."
Patten, who said he last saw the museum soon after it opened, noticed the changes outside since his last visit: The Iron Mike icon of a World War II-era paratrooper, a bronze statue of retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton and the $15 million Veterans Park.
The museum foundation's board of directors last received an update on the Army's expansion plans in May, according to minutes of the meeting. Board members were told to "digest the information and send feedback" to others, including Paul Galloway, director of the museum foundation.
Galloway said this week he cannot discuss the plan. It's not completed, he said, and the effort is being directed by Fort Bragg, not the foundation.
"We are just waiting to see what they come back with," he said.
The museum's nonprofit foundation, which helped raise money for its construction, partners with the Army to operate the building and provide programming for it.
According to a staff report to the Fayetteville City Council in July, the museum's executive committee heard a five-year plan "to expand the facility in order to add new exhibits and capacity at the current location."
Mayor Tony Chavonne, who attended the May meeting when the preliminary plan was shared, said one idea included retrofitting the theater and increasing the museum's national scope or reach.
"There was a plan on how the building could be expanded," Chavonne said.
The mayor said the plan "is a really positive step" in a city whose decade-old slogan is "History. Heroes. And a Hometown Feeling."
John Meroski, president of the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, attended the same meeting.
"I think at this stage it is simply conceptual — to look at the feasibilities, the potential of what ideas are doable."
Meroski called the museum "the single largest project as far as an attraction for downtown," spearheading other improvements and attractions that increasingly require visitors to stay overnight to see everything.
"This has been an anchor for downtown, and any expansion would be a benefit," he said.
