I went on July 3rd since the university was shut down for the holiday hoping that the museum might have some special exhibits for the holiday. I'm not sure if they did, but they did have some WWII veterans on hand detailing their experiences. A pilot of a C-47 (shown below) was on hand to discuss his experiences and had a picture of him as a 25 year old pilot. He was stationed in the Pacific theater and flew some missions for the Airborne Infantry. When I told him I was an economist, that diverted the conversation into the current political situation. He had no fond memories of former VP Cheney, but was fairly accepting of socialism that this country is seemingly accepting. I found his acceptance of a socialist country surprising, but when you are pushing 90 as he was, his time to fight is probably behind him, but his service to this country is still appreciated by me.
The museum had a very good collection of artifacts including tanks, jeeps, and planes on display when you walked into the entrance. Plenty of weapons and uniforms were present as you progressed through exhibits devoted to not only D-Day and the European Theater, but also the Pacific Theater.
Although you might not be able to see clearly on the German car, but it had a leather "sun" roof. I've never figured that one out. If you have thoughts, I'm all ears. The thing that really caught my attention as I started wandering through the museum was the following picture illustrating the disparity of troops at the start of the war. Granted, Japan and Germany had already been at war for several years prior to our involvement, but it shows you how a voluntary military force like our country operates during peace time. I can't remember what the scale of the graphic is now, but it's truly quite a discrepancy. If a similar drawdown in forces between peace and war in the country is not the same now, I'd be surprised.
I took a lot more pictures than I'm posting, but if you are interested in seeing them, let me know and I'll be glad to send them to you. In case you were wondering, the WWII Museum is located in N'awlins due to N'awlins being home of the Higgins boat which in General Eisenhower's estimation won the war (his exact statement is below on the ramp of a Higgins boat):
One last thing, Dr. Stephen Ambrose was a key person in bringing the museum to N'awlins and prominent WWII historian. His book "Band of Brothers" was made into the mini-series that originally aired on HBO. They had copies of that book in the museum's gift shop which I had planned on getting. Unfortunately, the only volumes were in German. Go figure.
