Palm Springs Air Museum wins regional Emmy award
The Palm Springs Air Museum took home a prestigious trophy this weekend, earning a regional Emmy award from the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences.
The museum's vice-chairman Fred Bell said winning the award was an unexpected honor that will carry on the legacies of the veterans they serve.
At the Pacific Southwest Emmy Awards in Rancho Mirage Saturday, Bell accepted the trophy for an hour-long special on public television in the military programming category: "Palm Springs Air Museum 25th Silver Anniversary Celebration Show."
Bell said the special was a Covid lockdown project for the museum to celebrate the milestone virtually.
"We do a lot of work with veterans and their stories. And so we had a lot of that footage, and we kind of pulled it all together, pulled in new footage," Bell said. "We ended up making magic."
The show chronicles veterans Bell said are quickly fading into history. 97-year-old Tuskegee Airman and long-time valley resident Rusty Burns passed away last week two days before the special he's featured in won the Emmy.
"He would have been thrilled to know that we received this award," Bell said.
As World War II and Korean War veterans grow older, the community is losing dozens of them each year.
"It never gets easy to say goodbye," Bell said. "This is a bittersweet for me and for the museum because Rusty just passed away. But this is really for all the veterans and all their experiences that we chronicle here at the museum."
