The National World War II Museum from a Family Perspective

Our family has always lived in Louisiana and we have made many trips to New Orleans, but had never visited the National World War II Museum.  Wow, we have been missing out!  Our son, Ethan, joined the US Marine Corps on June 11^th and we wanted to take a special trip before he left for boot camp.  Since we had never been, we could not think of a more perfect fit than this museum.

We had no idea just how vast and utterly immersive this museum was!  We had planned on staying about two and half hours but once we saw the shear size, we decided to clear our afternoon.  The campus is six acres and sits on multiple city blocks.  And it is not even finished!  There was construction going on while we were there which means more great exhibits are coming!

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own. 

Where to begin?

With a campus so large, you are not sure where to begin.  We started on the outside in Founders Plaza.  Here are our flags and a tribute bench with a bronze statue of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  There are also huge pieces of barriers from Utah Beach complete with bullet holes.  What was really moving to us were the memorial bricks.  There is an area completely paved with bricks bearing the name of a person who fought in this war.

Louisiana Memorial Pavilion

The main museum entrance is in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion and when you walk in the first thing you notice is the full size airplane suspended from the ceiling.  But then you look again and you notice there are more than one!  That is just how large this building is!  There is also a full size Higgins boat in the atrium area… if you don’t know the significance of this boat, read on.  To the back of the atrium appears to be a train station with a full 1940’s era arrivals and departures board that click-clacks as it spins as the times change.  Here you can take the LW ‘Pete’ Kent Train Car Experience to see what new recruits experienced on their way to war.

There is also a full stage set up and we were able to witness a Naval ceremony during our visit.  But this is just in the Atrium area, there is so much more just in this one building!

Why is it in New Orleans?

Because of the Higgins boat!  Here is the official statement from the museum:

New Orleans is home to the LCVP, or Higgins boat, the landing craft that brought US soldiers to shore in every major amphibious assault of World War II. Andrew Jackson Higgins and the 30,000 Louisiana workers of Higgins Industries designed, built and tested 20,000 Higgins boats in southeastern Louisiana during the war. Dwight Eisenhower once claimed that Higgins was “the man who won the war for us.”

We were lucky to be able to speak with a very knowledgeable museum employee who gave us an in-depth history of Andrew Higgins.  He was a very interesting man that ended up doing a world of good for our nation and our cause in this war!

Dog Tag Experience

This was my 14-year-olds favorite part of the museum!  Of course, the tech would appeal to the teenage gamers!  Upon arrival, each person is given a dog tag.  First you take this to the ‘Station 1’ kiosk in the lobby to activate.  Here you will enter your information and email and choose a soldier.  You can let the system choose for you or you can choose one that is available.  They can come from any branch of service but we had Marines and Army.  This initial kiosk will give his background and how/why he entered the service.  There are pictures on the screen and you also pick up the handset – which looks like a 1940’s era telephone – and hear the story.

Keep track of your card because the story will continue as you explore the museum.  Every time you see a kiosk, you scan the card.  If your person did not participate in that battle or that area of the world, it will direct you where to get the next part of your story.  For instance, if you are exploring the Pacific but your person fought in Europe there will not be a story in that area.

Two of the Marines we had were featured in the show ‘The Pacific’ which Ethan had seen so he knew their stories.  We all felt that this personalized the war experience when you can see it from a single person’s point of view.  You are also able to add to your ‘collection’ at different kiosks.  You can collect weapons, vehicles, etc.  When you get home, you can enter your Dog Tag information online and continue the adventure.

The Arsenal of Democracy

On the second floor is the Arsenal of Democracy exhibit.  This is where America decided to enter the war.  Let me tell you, visual cues really have an impact.  I knew the USA was heavily outnumbered in this war, but when you see the representation in front of your eyes it really blows you away! In the picture, each ‘soldier’ represents 3,000.  They had MILLIONS to our thousands!!!  But we still won!!!

There are some great artifacts in this area.  The child and infants gas masks are one of the first you see.  That really shows the seriousness of what people were dealing with.  There are also charts on the wall of how many Americans thought we should enter the war and you watched these numbers creep up until we were attacked at Pearl Harbor.  In the center of this very large exhibit area is a theater with television clips from this time and our president declaring war.

Home Sweet Home

My favorite area is the replica home.  You walk through a 1940’s kitchen with a radio playing softly in the background.  You can open the drawers and see the ration books and the cookbooks to teach families how to cook from the rations they had available to them.  In the living room a warm fire is burning and another radio is playing but this time it is the news.  In the closet hang uniforms and children’s dress-up uniforms as they played as little soldiers.  I found it fascinating to see this domestic part of the war on the home front.

The last part of this area is the training of the new soldiers.  You can see how they were enlisted and how they were trained.  It was interesting to hear about the Army training at Camp Claiborne which is close to our home in Alexandria, LA.  It has been abandoned now for years and years but you can still drive on the roads and see some of the original buildings.

Of course, our teenage boys were most interested in the weaponry.  They can tell you just about what every gun’s name is and how it was used.  I guess video games are good for something…

D-Day

The third floor is the D-Day Exhibit.  Did you know that this museum started as the D-Day Museum but later became the National World War II Museum??  So these artifacts are where the museum got its start.

D-Day came in two parts: 1) the meticulous planning and 2) the organized execution.  They had no backup plan if this didn’t work!  In this area, you will see the uniforms worn and the weapons used.  They have an American Infantryman’s uniform and gear right next to a German’s so you can see the similarities and differences.  I had no idea there were so many different types of weapons!  American and foreign guns, knives and explosive devices are on display.

Particularly interesting was the personal belongings assigned to each new soldier including a razor and shaving foam, comb, toothbrush and tooth powder.  They had paper and envelopes to write letters.  Also a gas mask and eye shield for safety.  And of course with everyone smoking in the 1940’s they were given cigarettes and a matchbook with a ‘V’ for victory.

The Solomon Victory Theater

There is a sky bridge that crosses the street from the second floor of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion over to the Solomon Victory Theater.  This was our next stop.  On the second floor is an exhibit from the US Merchant Marines.  These were civilians who risked their lived transporting supplies and weapons to our troops overseas.  On display are many of the items they used like life jackets and also instruments used in naval navigation.  We couldn’t have done it without them!

Beyond All Boundaries

The absolute must-see at the National World War II Museum is a 45-minute show called Beyond All Boundaries.  Do. Not. Miss. This.  It is an immersive 4D experience that tells the story of World War II through sight, sound and feel.  The stadium theater features extremely comfortable leather chairs that will come to life as the show progresses…  The screen is a wrap around 180 degrees.  And the sounds are all around you.

In the beginning, you will see a line of people marching from left to right across the screen.  In the middle, they transform from civilians to soldiers.  This was the first of many moving visual parts of the show.  We see America enter the war and the victories. But we are also shown the hardships and realities of war.  We heard accounts of those who were there and what they saw and what they felt.

Some of the incredible visuals were artifacts coming up from the ground or down from the ceiling during the story.  For instance, a large gun (as would have been on the deck of a ship) came up from the stage and ‘fired’.  You could hear the shots and there were lights all around so you could see how it would have looked.  When the tank rolled in on the screen, your seat shook from the vibrations.  It really pulled you into the story that was being told.

The most memorable was the atomic bomb… the theater goes completely dark and then there is a blinding light and the sound of the explosion.  It is so much more in person than I could ever describe.  I was moved to tears at many points during this show, as were my children.  It is hard to think about this experience without emotion flooding in.  We learned more in this 45 minutes that we ever had before.

Here is the official trailer of this incredible show:

Campaigns of Courage

The third building hosts the Campaigns of Courage in which one floor tells the story of the European Theater and the other floor the Pacific Theater.  You need about 45 minutes or more to explore each floor.  There are also many stations to us the Dog Tags to learn the story of your soldier.  America entered this war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Four days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.  Here we follow our journey on both fronts.

Road to Tokyo

When you first enter this area, you feel as of you are at the helm of a battleship.  And you are!  It is a replica of the bridge on the USS Enterprise.  Kids really enjoyed this area as they pretended to sail this ship.  But look around and you see the history.  There are also the stories of the leaders in this war… on our side, there was Franklin D. Roosevelt against the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito.

You see and feel the landscape as you walk through Guadalcanal.  It could be an idealistic tropical getaway, but it was known as Green Hell to our men who were there.  It is really well done in that the plants and landscapes are so large and true to life, you can see how the jungle could swallow you.  They were not only fighting off the relentless Japanese but were battling disease as well.  All through this area a white screen that looks like sheets that have been hung to dry that show film footage showing camps and sometimes the carnage.  So many died here.

These are just the first two rooms.  This area is vast and covers many aspects of the war in the Pacific.  Some of the other rooms are:  Island Hopping – many battles fought on various islands; Philippines; China, Burma & India – be sure to look up in this room as we almost missed the plane suspended from the ceiling! While there are artifacts in each of these rooms, what really grabbed our attention were the weapons.  There is a walled case showing the American weapons on one side and the Japanese on the other.  And not just guns, there was much of the fighting done with knives and swords and bayonets.

Road to Berlin

As the battles in the Pacific began with Guadalcanal, the US began with D-Day in Europe.  The first thing you notice is the vast differences in the landscapes.  While the Pacific was mostly jungle, the battles in Europe and Northern African ranged from desert to tundra.

The first landscape room that sticks in my mind was the desert.  Everything looked as if it was covered in sand.  Then you pass through the invasion of Sicily and other European campaigns and end with the Battle of the Bulge where everything is covered in snow.  This was the largest battle fought by Americans and was a surprise attack by Hitler in the Ardennes Forest in the dead of winter.

Our favorite room was ‘Air War’ which feels like you have walked into an enormous airfield hanger.  There is a huge hole in the ceiling where you can see planes flying overhead.  I especially loved the wall of pin-up girls.

Must see for every American!

I feel as if I have only scratched the surface of describing our experience.  We spent four and a half hours and could have stayed longer as we did not see each and every exhibit and I am sure we missed many details.  There is another building – The Boeing Center – but there was a private event being set up the day we visited so we missed it.  We did, however, get a glimpse of the many full-size airplanes suspended from the ceiling here!

Plan on spending the day, or at least a large part of it.  And don’t worry, if you get hungry, there is a delicious cafe reminiscent of a 1940’s soda shop – which is aptly named Jeri Nim’s Soda Shop – where you can grab a sandwich, or a burger or an ice cream.  Ethan had the Mama’s Meatloaf Sandwich which made his eyes roll up in his head it was so good… and it had mashed potatoes on it… yes!

In conclusion, I cannot recommend the National World War II Museum enough!  Every American should visit and get a better understanding of what life was like at home during the war and what our brave men and women did to defend this nation.  We all left with a greater appreciation and a want to learn even more.  I am so proud that my son has chosen this career path and is now on his way to becoming a United States Marine!

If you would like to see our experience at the National World War II Museum, here is the video:

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Thanks,

Alisa

EECC Travels