Deland Naval Air Station

DELAND — The DeLand Naval Air Station Museum could lose two of its
most
prestigious fighter planes because months of bitter infighting has
fractured the museum’s leadership and prompted one former official to
take steps to confiscate the vintage planes.

Christopher Stubbs, who was the organization’s executive director last
year, says the naval museum’s current leaders are mismanaging the
collection and failing to adequately maintain their TBF Avenger and the
F-14 Tomcat.

He has asked the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, which
has loaned the planes to the air station museum, to remove the planes
from DeLand’s collection for their protection.

The request is the latest turn in an escalating battle between two
opposing museum factions that has alarmed city officials, who say the
infighting threatens the future of one of Volusia’s crown jewels.

“It’s conceivable, yes, that the museum could fall apart because of
this,” Assistant City Manager Michael Pleus said. “It would be an
absolute travesty for DeLand. It’s a very valuable museum and to lose
that because of some infighting is terrible.”

The controversy is playing out at a critical time in the museum’s
history, as its leaders are poised to expand their collection and move
into a new 10,500-square-foot building. For now, the museum is housed
in
a tiny, 800-square-foot renovated bungalow near DeLand Municipal
Airport, which was once a Navy air base that trained bomber squadrons
to
fight in World War II.

Despite its cramped quarters, the museum boasts one of the largest
collections of military aircraft in Central Florida.

At issue is a spat between longtime museum official Dale Alexander and
several opposing officials, including Stubbs, over how the museum
should
be run and its future direction.

Stubbs maintains Alexander is abrasive, unethical, and uses the museum
for his own means. He alleges Alexander has done no maintenance work on
the TBF or F-14 in six months, has wrongfully shut out some museum
members and restoration crews, and has allowed a homeless man to give
tours and sleep under planes.

“He’s a mean-spirited man who has turned the museum into his own
private
gentleman’s club,” Stubbs said.

Alexander says Stubbs is bitter because he was ousted during an
election
last year and that it was Stubbs’ poor leadership, not his own, that
has
caused tension.

“It’s all lies,” Alexander said. “Our friend [Stubbs], unfortunately,
is
a sore loser.”

Officials with the city of DeLand, which contributes $9000 annually to
the museum and owns the museum’s current building, have tried to
mediate.

Mayor Bob Apgar said the city offered to take over management of the
museum for a year to give the warring factions time to resolve their
issues, but the idea was rejected. The city has no authority to force
change, he said.

Meanwhile, the rift could turn off some financial backers, he said.

“How is a potential donor going to feel about that kind of
circumstance?
It could have a harmful effect on the ultimate success of the
organization,” Apgar said.

The National Museum of Naval Aviation has no immediate plans to remove
the planes, but is planning an investigation of Stubbs’ claims, said
the
facility’s director, Robert L. Rasmussen.

Still, Stubbs said he is not waiting for Pensacola to take action. He
has also filed a complaint with U.S. Navy Secretary Donald Winter and
this week asked the Florida Attorney General’s Office to investigate
the
museum’s most recent election, which he said was manipulated by
Alexander.

He has also contacted a dozen other agencies and contributors alerting
them of problems at the museum.

“Why don’t I just walk away? Because what’s happening at the museum is
just not right,” Stubbs said. “The museum has just been, in my
estimation, damaged irreparably by all of this.”

Alexander, meanwhile, said he has hired a lawyer and won’t back down.

“This whole thing is going to end up in court,” he said, “and what’s
going to happen to the museum then?”

I found this on my yahoo, wrecks and relics group. It seems such a shame. I hope they can sort things out before its to late.
The museum
http://www.delandnavalairstation.org/index.htm