Heartland Airborn Memorial

The purpose of the Heartland Airborne Association Bulletin Board is to make it easy for visitors to keep up to date with the developments in the construction of the Heartland Airborne Memorial and to post items worth noting.

The Bulletin Board can also be used by other Airborne members and associations to post notices and information for all Airborne to view.

Bulletin Board c/o CharlesBuller
4705 Primrose Lane Omaha, Nebraska 68157

He sees a large statue of a paratrooper in Heartland of America Park. A few blocks away, a cargo plane drifts down over downtown Omaha. The doors open, and a hundred or so paratroopers float to earth for their national meeting at the Omaha convention center-arena.

Charlie Buller is a retired plumber, not a public relations man, but he has some high ideas for Omaha's ongoing Return to the River in 2003.

Buller and his ex-paratrooper cohorts have created the fledgling Heartland Airborne Memorial Association to launch a grass-roots campaign to make the picture live.

But first there is the matter of the approximately $190,000 that the association will have to raise to erect what they believe is the first national memorial to all American airborne forces.

The city would also have to agree the airborne invasion and, said Buller, "the Federal Aviation Administration has a lot to say about these things today."

"I have a gut feeling it's going to work out," said Buller, a Bellevue resident and the president of the national 11th Airborne Association.

Buller met Wednesday with other board members of the Heartland Association, all of Omaha: Gale Foutch, 11th Airborne; Cork Jacobs, 82nd Airborne; and Chuck Luczynski, 101st Airborne.

Their goal is the funding and installation of the memorial statue at Heartland of America Park in less than three years. It would be placed next to the World War II Memorial that was recently completed at the park. If the statue can be built, the men said, they then would approach all airborne associations about holding their national convention in Omaha in 2003.

Buller said the conclave, held every two years, draws about 6,000 ex-paratroopers from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Kent Holm, director of environmental services for Douglas County, said the County Board has agreed to the concept of the paratrooper statue. He said the association and the county, which oversees the park, probably will meet in February to go over financing.

The sculptor will be John Lajba of Omaha. Lajba's past work include the Road to Omaha statue at Rosenblatt Stadium, The Omaha Police Memorial, statuary at the Durham Western Heritage Museum and nationally, statues of comedian Bob Hope and Aviation pioneer James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle.

Lajba said he met and talked with several veterans before deciding the style of the bronze statue. It will be 6-feet, 5-inches tall and stand on a 5-foot tall granite pedestal that bears the insignias and plaques of airborne groups.

Lajba said he decided to portrait a paratrooper about to leap from an airplane because it conveys the sense of action that is about to occur.

Buller said there are other memorials to the individual divisions and regiments, such as the 11th and the 101st, but in his years working with national groups, he hasn't come across a national one.

Airborne warfare was conceived in World War I but did not become a factor in military engagements at that time. It was restudied in 1940, and the 82nd, the 101st and the 11th were the first units formed.

Two of the units whose insignias will be on the statue, the 17th and 18th, were part of the mysterious Phantom Army of World War II. The fictional units were composed of 30 fake divisions in a phony European attack designed to fool German leaders.

An early fund-raiser for the statue will be the selling of memorial bricks at $50 apiece. The name of the donor or a fallen paratrooper will be inscribed on the bricks, which will be installed around the statue.

Omaha has a track record for hosting paratrooper conventions. The city hosted national conventions of the 11th Airborne in 1997; the 101st Airborne in 1998; and the 82nd Airborne in 1999. In two, said Buller parachute drops were made at 72nd and Grover Streets.

The airborne has a lot of espirit de corps and, Buller said, "That's why I think it will succeed. We're all a big family, like brothers, from the early rough training. Even our priests and chaplains make the jumps."