The Grissom Air Museum’s efforts to preserve their very rare B-58 Hustler has received the attention of Senator Mike Braun. Today Braun staffers Josh Webb and Jacob Pomasl met with Museum officials to discuss plans for the $750,000 Captain Rocky Cervantes Memorial Hustler Exhibit. Cervantes was one of seventeen Bunker Hill-Grissom airmen killed in B-58 accidents.
The exhibit building is designed as an enclosed reproduction of the original alert aircraft shelters used at the Base during the Cold War. Large enough to fully protect the bomber from Indiana weather, the building will also display the Museum’s extensive collection of Hustler era artifacts and honor the sacrifices made by Indiana airmen throughout the Cold War.
Museum officials say that almost $160,000 has been raised toward the project from Air Force veterans and aviation enthusiasts. Bids are currently being accepted for the first phase of the project which Museum officials hope to begin next spring.
The B-58 was designed in the 1950s as a retaliatory weapons system of deterrence. Only 116 of these technologically advanced supersonic bombers were built and half the fleet was assigned to the 305th Bomb Wing at Bunker Hill-Grissom Air Force Base between 1961-1970. Only seven intact airframes remain in existence today.
The Grissom Air Museum has received no federal funding since Grissom AFB was realigned in 1994 and operates independently as a non-profit organization. Senator Braun has offered to help with federal grants and act as a liaison between the Museum and the US Air Force.
Photo: (L-R) Josh Webb, Jacob Pomasl, Tom Jennings discussing Grissom’s B-58 Hustler