About the Museum

In January of 2009, upon hearing of the base closure, a group of retired and ex-navy personnel, museum professionals, and other interested persons assembled in the Curtis Memorial Library to see about establishing a museum and retaining the memorial gardens located at the Brunswick Naval Air Station (NASB) Chapel. The group determined that this should be done to educate this and future generations about the significance of NASB to the town of Brunswick and surrounding areas so that this vital part of our heritage would not be lost. It then set about incorporating, drafting its bylaws, developing a business plan and obtaining its 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. An organizational Board of Directors was established to undertake these operations.

Our name was established as the Brunswick Naval Museum and Memorial Gardens.

The Museum's purposes are to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the history of naval airborne patrol, especially the history of NASB and tenants based in Maine including the SeaBees, SERE School, Firefighters, Marine Corps Detachments, and National Guard; and to maintain a memorial to those service members who gave their lives in service to their country, who became prisoners of war, or who are missing in action. To that end we will establish and maintain museum facilities, maintain a memorial garden, collect and preserve artifacts, photographs, documents and other materials pertaining to that history, and mount ongoing educational activities including exhibits, research, publications, seminars, workshops, lectures, flight training and outreach programming.

We are a membership organization and any person, organization or corporation desiring to support and/or promote the purposes of the Museum is eligible for membership. An annual meeting will be held once a year to elect members of the Board of Directors that will govern the museum and memorial gardens. The Board members are elected from the membership and serve for a term of three years. The Board in turn elects its officers from among its membership.

We also decided to obtain the base Chapel and surrounding grounds as the primary location to house the museum and its activities. The Memorial Gardens are already in place there and the chapel building has an abundant amount of room for exhibits, meetings, a library and educational programming.