News

55th AMXS honors heritage through murals

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Rachel Hammes
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs

The hallways of the Bennie Davis Maintenance Facility here were brightened recently by the completion of a mural more than 500 hours in the making.

Tech Sgt. Adam Gall, a program manager with the 55th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, began work on the mural in March, thinking it would be a project he could finish quickly before returning to his normal duties.

Gall was initially approached by squadron leadership to finish a smaller mural that had been left unfinished. After completing it, he was approached with a new idea – the Airman’s Creed and the Maintenance Creed with something decorative between them.

“The original idea kind of evolved because of my interactions with them and their interactions with me,” he said. “Eventually, I drew up a quick sketch of the middle section and it went from a small, simple project to the whole wall.”

Gall took inspiration from war memorials as well as maintainer history to create his vision for the mural, painting aircraft maintained at Offutt into the sky. Despite not considering himself an artist, Gall said he hopes the mural will honor the maintainer heritage.

“It shows pride in all the maintainers who came before us,” he said. “We all put a lot of hard hours into maintaining, trying to get the mission going between deployments and training. If this can help people remember our past, I feel like it’s done its job.”

Lt. Col. Angela Edmondson, commander of the 55th AMXS, assumed command after Gall had already started work on the mural, but showed support throughout the process.

“The time spent on this mural was well worth it because it sends a message to everyone who walks through this building that we take pride in what we do,” she said. “Everyone who works here knows we should be proud of this organization and what we do is important. This is a place you should be proud to be from.”

Gall said the support from Edmondson and the previous AMXS commander, Maj. Tim Dodson, is helpful in maintaining morale.

“I’ve been at Offutt for a while, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the building,” he said. “It does actually mean a lot when a commander is interested in making our life better. The feedback I’ve gotten while working on the mural, from not only fellow maintainers but other people passing through the halls, is that it makes their day a little bit better. Despite the amount of hours I put into it, that makes it worth it.”