Fund raising falls short at Ford Island

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The planned Military Aviation Museum of the Pacific needs $53 million. The USS Missouri wants $10 million. Ditto for the USS Arizona Memorial.

The USS Hoga, one of the last surviving ships of the battle at Pearl Harbor, is moored in Oakland, Calif. Four groups are seeking the tug. Advertiser library photo

And that doesn't even count the tugboat Hoga — one of the last surviving ships from the Dec. 7, 1941, battle — which doesn't have a foothold in the channel, but which a preservation group is desperately trying to bring back to Hawai'i.

As the new military museums seek to join the crowd, at least one existing one — the battleship Missouri — has scaled back its "All Hands on Deck" campaign to raise $10 million to pay for interactive exhibits, educational programs and much greater ship access.

A Missouri representative said while visitor numbers remain strong — 35,863 people toured the battleship in March 2003 compared to 34,097 for the same month last year — the poor economy and donations redirected to 9-11 relief have affected the campaign.

The USS Missouri Memorial Association raised $3 million, but instead of seeking the remainder in the near term, the group has focused on specific projects such as a "chief's museum" and "explorer's tour" of the battleship that was the scene of Japan's surrender to the United States on Sept. 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay.

Donations are still coming in, they're just not being as aggressively pursued as part of a national campaign, a museum representative said.

Last month, meanwhile, Bishop Museum laid off nine employees with the expectation of receiving $1.3 million less in federal money during the next two years. The loss was blamed on the sluggish economy and need by Congress to pay for the war in Iraq.

B. Allan Palmer, hired to run the Military Aviation Museum of the Pacific on Ford Island, is optimistic about a capital campaign starting in September with the goal of raising up to $53 million.

"The truth of the matter is there is still some big money being raised for the purpose of museums," Palmer said.

The Navy has agreed in principle to the 65-year lease of 22.7 acres of Ford Island land for the museum, Palmer said.

Museum planners want to use three old hangars for Pacific theater aviation exhibits from the arrival of the first aircraft on O'ahu in 1913, through both world wars, the Korean war, Cold War and Vietnam war, to the present.

The museum tour also would include a film of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, re-created battle damage scenes and a trip to the top of the 1930s control tower near Luke Field.

About $193,000 has been raised, and aviation museum board members recently pledged another $100,000 of their money. But the big national campaign won't start until the fall for the museum expected to open on Dec. 7, 2005.

The museum unsuccessfully sought $1 million from the state, and plans to ask Congress for money. "(The request) is going to be very much along the lines of the D-Day Museum in New Orleans," Palmer said. "That museum had about $7 million that was allocated to start the museum, and we think that's a pretty good model perhaps for this one."

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is opening a $120 million expansion, and the Museum of Flight in Seattle is pursuing a $50 million expansion, Palmer said.

"So oddly enough, aviation museums — while all the rest may be suffering a bit — are doing quite well raising money," he said.

Kapolei's Dave Ford, meanwhile, is hoping to add the tugboat Hoga to O'ahu's military attractions.

The 100-foot tug, which rescued survivors and helped push the damaged battleship USS Nevada so it didn't block Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It now sits in a Navy reserve fleet facility in Oakland, Calif., Ford said.

The Hoga is being sought by four parties that Ford said just made the Navy's final cut: his group, called the Tugboat Hoga Preservation Society; two other groups in Florida; and the Bill Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

Ford's group has a June 9 deadline to secure a berthing agreement. The preservation society is looking at the east side of Pier 7 next to the Hawai'i Maritime Center, and is negotiating with owner Bishop Museum, although Ford hasn't ruled out a Ford Island location.

Ford estimates the cost for the project will be $847,000.

"We've burned almost all of our cash on these applications, and grant writing and everything, to the tune of maybe $70,000," he said.

Ford also said he's planning a national fund-raiser to get the remainder.

The USS Arizona Memorial, meanwhile, has its own campaign to raise $10 million. The fund-raising effort, kicked off in 2001, started with a contribution of $2 million from the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, and had raised almost another $1 million by February for projects including doubling museum space, expanding research and resource management facilities, and improving the bookstore, parking lots and walkways.

The hope is to raise the remaining $7 million during the next two years.

The USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park is the only museum near Ford Island that doesn't have a fund-raising campaign going.

"We're pretty low-key, and we survive on our ticket sales and gift shop sales," museum supervisor Nancy Richards said.

Palmer and Ford said the museums are working cooperatively, and may be able to collectively benefit from additional attractions.

"We're doing similar kinds of things, but there's actually some synergy in that we're trying to make a case with everybody that Pearl Harbor has many things in it that combined, are larger than individual elements," Palmer said.

Palmer, who was hired away from the San Diego Aerospace Museum, said Balboa Park and its 22 or so different institutions all were raising money at the same time.

"But they all did it pretty successfully, and it actually served as kind of a (fund-raising) magnet because a couple of them were doing it all at once, and it kind of drew attention to the that area," Palmer said. "I think there's some basis for that at Pearl Harbor."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.