New Horizons Astronaut returns home to head SAC Museum

By Bob Glissmann Flatwater Free Press

Ed Burchfield knows the crucial role the Strategic Air Command played in the United States’ Cold War victory over the Soviets.

The retired Air Force colonel served for years at SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue, oversaw nuclear missile silos buried in central Montana and worked on SAC-related projects at the Pentagon.

Burchfield is proud of that history. But the longtime board member of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum –which he helped move to its current home near Ashland – now thinks the long-struggling SAC Museum needs to offer more than that history to survive.

The massive bombers, missiles and sleek fighter jets simply don’t pull in young Nebraskans in 2023, he said. “As much as I love my brethren, who are old SAC guys, ‘Hey, guys, we ain’t around anymore,’ ” said Burchfield, 79.

“The command is gone. And we got these big, greasy (aircraft) out here that are fun to watch and see and look at, but we’ve got to move on. And that’s why space fits in.”

The museum’s plan to place a greater emphasis on space travel came after the hiring of retired astronaut and Ashland native Clayton Anderson. The focus on space has rankled some retired Air Force and SAC veterans. But Anderson and others think it presents the latest chance for the museum to thrive – or simply survive – after a quartercentury history that has included 10 different directors and recent financial woes.

Anderson, 64, was on the museum board but was living in Houston when museum leaders convinced him to take the job as president and CEO. He moved back to work in his hometown with the goal of making the museum “a gem of the Midwest.”

“The fact that the young boy that dreamed of being an astronaut three miles from where (the museum) stands is now back in that chair leading it — I think is important,” Anderson said recently while

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By Andy Bradley Contributing Writer

They were coming for him. They were racing through the bush and along hot, narrow, dusty footpaths for him and his family. Walter Paul tells the harrowing story of his family’s desperate escape from Uganda in 1997, at the height of a dangerous and violent insurgency. Heavily armed soldiers, under the leadership of notorious warlord Joseph Kony, were coming for their village, torching homes and fields as they advanced.

In a panic, Walter’s mother hid and shielded him and his siblings until the raid passed and the sounds of terror and chaos faded. Mom, dad and eight children eventually navigated to safety in a crowded refugee camp, then immigrated to the United States, settling first in Dallas, three years later in Omaha, when Paul turned nine.

After completing middle school at All Saints Catholic School, Walter enrolled at Creighton Prep, and as his haunting story became known. He joined the speech and debate team his sophomore year, and excelled in several events, even though Acholi, not English, was his native language. He was a state debate champion in 2012. In his senior year he decided to describe his family’s narrow escape from Uganda as the theme of his oratory. He qualified for the 2014 national high school speech tournament and reached the final round, delivering his powerful speech a half-dozen times in front of judges, contestants and spectators.

Although he didn’t win, he did merit Student of the Year honors bestowed by the National Speech and Debate Association at the

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