Granite Falls is a small town in Minnesota. Population about 2,700 people. Yet it has a superb aviation museum, dedicated to WWII. Granite Falls is about 120 miles due west of Minneapolis.
Five big hangers filled with aircraft:
Warbird Maintenance and Restoration
Trainer Hanger
Fighter Hanger
Bomber Hanger
Navy Hanger (relatively new)
The hangers and aircraft are well maintained and clean. The airplanes shine. You will see drip pans under some engines; all these aircraft FLY.
Roland “Ron” Fagen, a Minnesota native, and his wife Diane and their two sons, Aaron and Evan, started the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum in 2012. The museum is intended as a memorial for Ron’s father Ray, who saw combat in WWII at Utah Beach in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and the Battle of the Bulge. The museum is a memorial to the WWII era.
Ray was an avid pilot, and he got Ron hooked on aviation as well.
Ron did a tour of duty in the Army’s 4th Infantry division in Vietnam. Upon returning home he entered the construction field and formed his own highly successful company, Fagen, Inc., in 1988. Ron was inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in 2018. Aaron and Evan run Fagen, Inc., now that Ron and Diane have retired from the company.
The museum has many posters, dioramas, memorabilia, art, and exhibits other than the aircraft. My video includes many of these explanatory displays. Pause the video as you desire to read this information.
Standing next to the Corsair, I had to think of Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s sidekick. McMahon was a Marine Corps Flight Instructor in Corsairs for two years in WWII.
For another visit to a fine aviation museum, be sure to watch my video of the Commemorative Air Force Airbase Arizona Museum in Mesa, Arizona.
• Commemorative Air Forc...
Enjoy my video of my visit to the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, Minnesota.
• Fagen Fighters WWII Mu...
But there is no substitute to actually being at the museum. As many times as I have seen these aircraft in movies and documentaries, I am impressed by how big they are when you actually stand next to them.
And please click on my RU-vid channel Subscribe icon. I have over 130 videos on my RU-vid channel in various categories/playlists, emphasizing the Old West, natural and human history Out West, the American Civil War, and others. Check ‘em out! / stagecoacher
And visit my website for details on all my Western and Civil War novels, as well as links to information on the Old West, the Civil War Afloat, fiction writing, etc. Look for the "B Troop" icon at the end of the video. jimjanke.com
Jim
10 сен 2024
