Airmen's Preservation Society

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Welcome to the Airmen’s Preservation Society.

The Capital Wing of the APS is the Central East Coast wing of the Airmens Preservation Society. Although centered around the states of Virginia, Maryland, Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware, some of our members also travel from much further afield. Formed in 1985, the WWII Airmen’s Preservation Society has grown from a small group of dedicated individuals in the Pittsburgh area to six chapters (“wings”) stretching from New England to the Mississippi River. Members, both male and female, range in age from young adult to WWII veteran.

Living History

At airshows or military history events, the Society sets up a complete US Army Air Corps encampment of the type common with tactical (mobile) air units of the European or Pacific Theaters of combat in WWII. The visitor will find historically authentic mess facilities, operations tent, mission briefing tent, communications facilities, living quarters, medical/Red Cross facilities, weather station, and even an operational darkroom. Society members “staff” the various locations in WWII period uniforms and strive to re-enact the daily lives of the men and women who lived and fought in these same settings during the war, including re-creating the aircrew mission briefings – using actual Air Force Historical Archives data for the mission details.

Group Motto and Goal

The motto of the group is “To Honor, Preserve, and Remember”. Our primary goal is to HONOR those men and women who gave of themselves during the war. Had it not been for their sacrifices, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the freedoms that we do today, and will for generations to come. Our second goal is to PRESERVE both the memorabilia of the WWII era and the memories of those who lived it. Besides being avid collectors of the uniforms and equipment of the WWII airmen, our members attempt to learn all they can from the veterans about their experiences during the war. We then display the memorabilia, and strive to pass on what we have learned from the veterans to those viewing the displays. Our third and final goal is to REMEMBER. It is said that history repeats itself. The reason it does so is that mankind tends to forget the unpleasant lessons it learns. We must not allow the lessons learned in 1939-1945 to be forgotten.