Here is a photo of our National Headquarters building. We hope it gives you some idea of what a great headquarters location we have at Randolph AFB. Come see it 0800 - 1630, Monday through Friday. Call for other times.
Specifics: Building # 676, 55 Main Circle, Randolph AFB, Texas, is located between the AETC Headquarters Building and what some of you may remember as the old clinic. Built in 1994 at no cost to the government, the site is perfectly suited and situated to maximize the beauty and significance of the structure. And best of all, it's open for your inspection.
Below is a photograph of the Founder Member Memorial.
Specifics: The Founder Member Memorial, set back some fifteen feet from the front entrance to the headquarters building, was dedicated in May of 1996, two years after the building was completed. The eight feet by twelve feet, ten inch 1,500 pound bronze bas relief, sculpted by Donna L. Dobberfuhl, is titled Soaring With Daedalus and is the first thing one sees upon entering the building. Its cost approached $100,000 and it was almost entirely paid for by donations from Daedalians throughout the world. The words across the top are "The First To Fly Our Country's Airplanes In Time Of War". The next line reads "14,000 U. S. Aviators: USA, USN, USMC, USCG". At the bottom left are the names of the thirty-five Charter Members who began the Order on 26 March 1934 at Maxwell Field, Alabama. The first tenet of the Order, "Nation Above Self" is inscribed across the bottom center. Broken wings, symbolizing Icarus' failure to follow instructions, the hazards of the calling, and pilot attrition over the years, are on the bottom center and right. Daedalus is depicted rising center left; his feet touching the seal of the Order upon which the words "Volabamus" (We Flew) and "Volamus" (We Fly), the motto of the Order, are inscribed. The four heads, beginning top left and moving clockwise, represent the U. S. Army, the U. S. Coast Guard, the U. S. Marine Corps and the U. S. Navy. Shown in the center is a representation* of World War I aerial combat in which a Spad XIII is seen dispatching a Fokker DVII. In the upper right corner are the somewhat dimmer figures of an astronaut and some planets, representing the future of human activity in air and space.
Another of Ms. Dobberfuhl's works is the ex-POW memorial at Andersonville, Georgia.
*From artist J.D. Carrick's 1960 painting of Founder Member Mr. Charles R. D'Olive's fifth aerial victory on 18 October 1918.
