NPS Director, AFLCMC airmen visit Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument during National Park Week

  • Published
  • By Allyson B. Crawford and TSgt Matthew Fredericks, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFLCMC) - The tradition continues between the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center B-2 Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB and the Charles Young Buffalo Soldier Memorial Monument in Wilberforce, Ohio.

Col. Cory Brown is Senior Materiel Leader of the B-2 System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB. As a community project, Brown’s team “adopted” the monument a few years ago. Now, each April as part of the National Park Week Celebration, the B-2 group gather at the Charles Young home to around the property.

This year, the gathering happened on April 21. In addition to Brown and other WPAFB Airmen, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Dallas Jr., Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Central State University, also attended. The day was extra special because National Park Service Director Charles Sams III traveled to Wilberforce to thank volunteers for their work on the Charles Young home restoration project and to present “America the Beautiful Military Passes” to current military members at WPAFB and ROTC members based at Central State University. Military "America the Beautiful" passes provide free entry to more than 2,000 National Park Service sites and National Wildlife Refuge Centers. 

Wilberforce University is considered the parent institution of Central State. The historically black universities (HBCUs) share campus land in Wilberforce, Ohio. 

Young was an escaped slave who became a Buffalo Soldier serving with the 9th and 10thCalvary and 25th Infantry. He was the first African American to achieve the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army. He attended West Point and graduated in 1887. Young purchased a home near Wilberforce when he began his military teaching career. The home is now undergoing a massive renovation to return it to its early 20th century aesthetic.

President Barack Obama designated the house as the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument on March 25, 2013.  The home was first designated a national landmark in 1974.

RELATED: learn more about the partnership between the B-2 program office and the historic Charles Young Home.