A Vietnam War replica EC-47 Electric Goon aircraft, installed in front of the Goodfellow AFB wing headquarters in October 2005, stands in tribute to the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission that has been the training focus on the base since 1958.
The San Angelo Heritage Chapter of the Freedom Through Vigilance Association (FTVA), supported by a grant from the San Antonio-based national board of directors, sponsored the creation of an EC-47 Memorial Plaza (see a rendering by San Angelo architect Henry Schmidt via the article link below). Goodfellow AFB officials accepted the Heritage Chapter design and gift of nearly 1,000 pavers on June 24, 2019.
Initial plans were to dedicate the EC-47 Memorial Plaza and an estimated 250 engraved bronze plates during a national Vietnam War Veterans Day ceremony scheduled at the aircraft display on March 27, 2020. However, the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic with extensive travel bans and community "lockdown" restrictions caused both the construction of the plaza and the dedication ceremony to be postponed indefinitely. Dedicated Goodfellow AFB Civil Engineers and San Angelo contractors did complete the plaza construction and placement of the pavers during early April 2020. Plans are being considered for rescheduling the finished bronze plate installations and dedication during a ceremony in late 2020.
Visit the article link below to see photographs of finished engraved bronze plates taken in a studio setting. Each bronze plate is numbered to correspond with its final placement location in the plaza design. There are separate galleries and numbering sequences for the 4x8 and 8x8 paver bronzes. Click on the individual paver icons to link to the respective gallery.
SEE THE LATEST UPDATE about this important project. View this prior link for additional info.
Original article appeared Jan 5, 2020.
