Returning My Air Force Security Forces Museum Life Membership Card

August 18, 2014 jjsan220@gmail.com USAF Defenders News 20

CMSgt Chalma Lee Sexton, Jr. USAF (Retired)
3218 Heatherbrook Drive
Haughton, LA 71037-9332

The Honorable Deborah Lee James
Secretary of the Air Force
1690 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670

18 August 2014

Dear Secretary James,

I am returning my Air Force Security Forces Museum life membership card.

I am returning my Air Force Security Forces Museum life membership card
I am returning my Air Force Security Forces Museum life membership card

On 15 August 2014, forty-four years to the day when I swore my first oath of enlistment, and under command order and directive, the Air Force Security Forces Museum closed.  The Air Force Security Forces Museum was important to every security forces man and woman, past and present.

Our museum was much more than a building containing numerous exhibits.  It was also something else.

IT WAS A PLACE SECURITY FORCES MEN AND WOMEN HONORED OUR DEAD.

This, building, was our, HALLOWED GROUND. It was where successive generations learned of personal and team sacrifice.  It was a place lessons were learned in ground defense and force protection.  Lessons paid for in blood.  It was a place security forces men and women could say, “That’s mine.  That’s who I am and who we are.”

As someone who was there at its birth, I am sadden I was alive at its death.  Life membership is supposed to mean our museum outlives me.

Again, please accept my life membership card to the former Air Force Security Forces Museum.  Whether the building and the site is turned in to an office, a warehouse, or completely torn down, no longer matters.  What matters is, IT IS FOREVER OUR HALLOWED GROUND.

Respectfully

CHALMA LEE SEXTON, JR.
Command Chief Master Sergeant
United States Air Force (Retired)

CMSgt Chalma Lee Sexton, Jr. USAF (Retired)
CMSgt Chalma Lee Sexton, Jr. USAF (Retired)

Enclosed:
SF Museum Life Member Card

cc:
Air Force Chief of Staff
The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force

20 Comments

  3. I too am disappointed at the closing of the museum. My youngest son is in basic training wot 5 and will be graduating in Sept.. He is going into SF and I was really looking forward to visiting the museum. Thanks Chief!

  4. How sad I am to hear of the closing of this hallowed ground. I visited there every chance I could. I went there when my oldest son graduated the Academy and again when my youngest son graduated from the Academy. I remember doing there to see this solemn place, yet a place that filled me with pride, when I went through the Academy in 1982. I went there again to see the memorial for my fallen friend who died in a chopper crash serving as a SP in convoy duty. What will happen to those memories? Why did this happen? I am saddened.

  5. Well said Chief. I too was also there when it 1st started, being a fellow Instructor with you, we pushed many donations so the museum could be built. AETC threw AP/SP/SF under the bus. I feel that AETC needed the building for their own use which is why it is closed.

  6. chief,i support your decision. however, im holding on to my life membership card. why, well I hopefully expect that the future will give us the space in the temp facility and future building that will again be one that honors our past and future. been thru it a few times and am so proud of what our troops have done.

  7. Well done Chief. We can just ad this to the man eroding benefits enjoyed for many years. As a 12 year Recruiter and 12 year cop how many lies did I spread?

  8. Thanks Chief. Security Police/LE ’76-’80. CATM until retirement in ’94. Been with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office since ’94, Patrol Division and SWAT Negotiator. I swore my oath as a LE troop in March ’76. That museum was who we were….I had no idea this was happening. Very pathetic leadership to allow that to happen.

  9. Well said Cheif! Thank you for your service and dedication to our country and to our brothers and sisters!

  10. Hit the nail right on the head Chief! Seems about right that like the rest of society, leadership(AETC) does as they please. To dump on the largest career field in the AF in a manner such as this is obscene to say the least. Thank you for laying it out there in such a concise manner to AF leadership. Lets hope someone has the balls to reverse this idiotic decision.

  11. Good for you Chief.

    I guess this is their way of destroying what was left of our heritage.

  12. Robert Gray was memorialized there: killed by intruders at Clark AB RPI Dec 1977. I knew and served with him. What aviator museum is closing, I wonder? As always cops get the short end. 17 months till I retire from civil service. After a lifetime of Air Force as a dependent, a career cop and First Sergeant, I will walk away and never look back at the modern AF. It appears all the sacrifices by the men and women APs, SPs, and SF’ers, money meant more than them. James R. Williamson, MSgt Retired.

  13. Hi Lee, served with you at the Academy for several years. Saddens me that all the work, donations etc. So easily taken away. We still have the pride in each other that they can never take. Col. Denisio taught. E that.

  14. Lee, I served with you for several years at the Academy. We worked hard to build and dedicate that building. But they can never take our pride in each other. Col. Denisio taught me that.

  15. I guess they can put a price on the lives of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country and career field. No more memorials for our fallen and honored! We need more CMSGT ‘s like you, that are true to yours and your field.

  16. Excellent! I was going to consider one upon retiring next year. But after learning the news late last week, I have reconsidered that decision.

  17. Well said and thanks Chief! I served from 1979 to 1988. SP Academy class 800104. Though I did not retire from active duty I will carry the memories with me for the rest of my life because I was struck by a pick up truck while at the main gate of my first duty station. I stayed in for several more years and only separated because I got to the point where I required narcotic pain medication on a daily basis. Now I am a 100% Disabled Veteran from the back injury as a result of that accident in September 1981. I am and will forever be a Defender. Give us back our museum!

  18. WHAT A SHAME. WHY !!! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY CLOSE IT AT ALL. WE AP/SP/SF ALL DONATED MONEY TO BUILD THE BUILDING, THE CURATOR WAS PAID FROM OUR FUNDS AND EVERY ITEM IN THE MUSEUM WAS DONATED BY FOLKS FROM OUR CAREER FIELD. tHE NEW BUILDING IS TEARS AWAY-WHY CLOSE ALL THAT TIME WAITING FOR THE NEW BUILDING. WHY IS THE MUSEUM NOT CONTINUING AS AN EDUCATIONAL ENTITY FOR OUR SF ACADEMY STUDENTS. WHY DID AETC DO THIS WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING OUR CAREER FIELD LEADERS. I SURE HOPE OUR SF LEADERSHIP WILL FIGHT THIS DECISION AND MAINTAIN OUR INDEPENDANT MUSEUM, IF NOT ON THE BASE SOMEWHERE CLOSE BY (BULLIS/MEDINA?). THERE HAS TO BE A REASONABLE SOLUTION-THINK LEADERS!!!!

  19. Thanks Chief, you said it all very elloquently. I was an SP(Security side) for 15 years, was jump and air assault qualified as well as a sniper and a SWAT(EST) member. Iw as in from August 77 to June 92. It really saddened me when I found out about the museum being closed down. I had planned to come to it and go through it again with my wife, to let her know exactly what we cops went through, but I guess that I won’t be doing that now. Thank you for your years of service as an SP/SF.

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