Newsletter Saturday, May 9, 2026

Ridgewell Airfield Museum opens again tomorrow, and we'd love to see you!

From 11am to 4pm, you'll find refreshed displays, real stories from the airfield's wartime past, and a new shop area with some lovely goodies to take home. The kettle will be on, bacon rolls will be sizzling, and there'll be cake too.

Entry is free. Our volunteers will be around all day to chat and share the history that makes this place so special, so whether it's your first visit or a long-overdue return, tomorrow's the day.

And tomorrow is a little bit special! We're thrilled to be welcoming the family of Colonel Joseph Nazzaro to the museum, the man who built the 381st Bomb Group from the ground up and brought them to Ridgewell.

Above: Lieutenant Colonel Joseph J. Nazzaro (Front Row, Second from left, in leather jacket) while serving as Eight Air Force deputy director of operations for Strategic Air Forces in Europe during World War II.

Joseph J. Nazzaro was the son of Italian immigrants, raised in Queens, New York. A West Point graduate and a football star, he was handed quite the assignment at the start of 1943: build a brand new heavy bombardment group from scratch.

He arrived at Pyote, the "Rattlesnake" bomber base in the Texas desert, on the 2nd January. Over the following months, he trained his crews hard. When exhausted airmen complained to the group's chaplain, James Good Brown, Brown's reply was blunt: "He is getting you ready for war."

By June 1943, Nazzaro and his group were at Ridgewell. On the 22nd June, he led them on their first combat mission, a raid on Antwerp. He commanded the 381st through some of its toughest months before handing over in January 1944.

Nazzaro went on to reach the rank of four-star general, eventually commanding Strategic Air Command, one of the most powerful military positions in the world. But that journey started here, on a patch of Essex countryside.

So do come along tomorrow if you can. It's a rare and lovely chance to meet the family behind one of Ridgewell's most important stories.

Lieutenant General Joseph J. Nazzaro with President John F. Kennedy at Dow Air Force Base in 1962.

Coming Up: Thursday 4th June 2026

Casey Bukowski will be visiting the museum at 1pm on his 102nd birthday, after taking a glider flight over the very airfield he once flew from as a B-17 waist gunner in 1944.

The museum and café will be open from 12 noon, so come early, grab a bacon roll, and be there to welcome him. Everyone is welcome!

A Story Still Being Told

What makes this history so powerful is that it isn't just something we read. It's something we can still hear, in the voices of those who were there.

A new podcast, Triumphant We Fly, follows one of those voices across several episodes.

Casey Bukowski was a waist gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress flying from Ridgewell in 1944. He's now 101 years old, and his story is extraordinary.

It begins with a young man falling in love, and a world changed overnight by Pearl Harbor. It takes him through flight training, a bail-out that nearly ended everything, and the bond he formed with his crew at Ridgewell. Then comes the mission to Germany on President's Day 1944, the day Casey's B-17 was shot down. And what followed was something no training could have prepared him for: life as a prisoner of war, and an 86-day forced march through Germany before liberation.

Four episodes. One remarkable life. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Your Support Keeps History Alive

Ridgewell Airfield Museum is volunteer-run and receives no external funding. The doors stay open because of the people who support us, through memberships, donations, and simply turning up.

There's always more to do. This winter brought repairs to the roof, and ahead of us there's a growing collection to care for and new stories still coming to light. If you'd like to be part of that, a membership or donation of any size genuinely helps.

Please consider donating today.