April 16, 2025. I was planning to be in Alameda one afternoon so I looked around on the map for a place to visit. That’s sometimes how these expeditions come about. I’ve been past this museum many times but the signage facing the street is not prominent and is usually hidden by cars in the parking lot.
The place is huge. It’s both stories of the former terminal building. One of the founders, Marilyn York, was a WAVE (one of the first!) and a “Rosie the Riveter.” The former navy base, closed in 1997, is also huge. At one time it employed 45,000 people.
There are two dioramas, plenty of scale models and quite a few period decorated scenes with costumed mannequins. I like this 3D mural of troop movements. There’s a gift shop with t-shirts and George Bush figurines. An exhibit is dedicated to James Doolittle, who led the first raid on Japan after Pearl Harbor, launching from the nearby USS Hornet (Expedition 30).
This jacket belonged to my dad, with its wolf in sheep’s clothing emblem. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1941 at 17 and spent part of his time shooting photos of Southeast Asia from a giant hole in the bottom of a plane (which were later used for reconnaisance during the Vietnam War).
A large room is devoted to Pan Am, which started airmail service in 1935 and a year later introduced passenger service. The interior of the plane looks quite spacious, a good thing since the flight took six days to get from Alameda to Manila! The map shows some of the stops it made for fuel. Most websites and even these official posters say the flights left from San Francisco, but the first international flights were from Alameda.
Upstairs is an event room that looks moored in the 50’s (as does much of Alameda, locals can attest). The Confederate Air Force (now “Commemorative”) collects and restores all American military aircraft which fly in shows around the country. Enormous plate glass windows view the former airstrip, which is now used for music festivals and roller blading.
I was intrigued by this model of the Japanese Naval ship Yamato. It was built in 1941, presumably before the attack on Pearl Harbor! This Army Ranger model is for collectors, it’s not a toy.