This day began with a hot breakfast in the hotel lobby. We got to see many Kansas State fans at breakfast, all still stunned at their beatdown by the SEC a few days before. Sam became fascinated with the ever rolling toaster. He was so funny just watching his bread roll into the opening, then almost cheering as it dropped out the bottom nice and toasted. Magan picked on me for my selection of the English muffin, when apparently you are in New Orleans, you should eat the fresh french croissants from the hotel lobby breakfasts.
It was the perfect location for a hotel, and cheapest on my hotel points to stay. But it was only 2.5 blocks from the World War 2 museum which was the primary reason for this trip. We arrived early because we knew there was alot to see, and walked in right as the museum opened at 9AM. For a family of 6, the family annual membership was the same cost as individual tickets, so we walked directly to the member line, and jumped to be one of the first into the "train car" taking us into the museum and introducing us to the "dog tag experience". The dog tag experience is really cool where each person gets a card and assigned a random veteran that served in the war. Then throughout various stages in the war, you can scan your card at certain kiosks to hear the story of your veteran or person impacted by the war. Ruby had a lady that was a young girl in the Philippines when the war began, and followed her story. I was excited to get Jimmy Stewart and got to see his path during the war.
So a little about the stages of this museum, and each stage is a museum in itself...There is a section on the preparation for America to enter the war...There is a full floor dedicated to one day (D-day)...There is a full museum for the "Road to Berlin" showing the battles in Europe...There is a full museum for the "Road to Tokyo" showing the Pacific battles. And finally there is a large 4 story hanger showing aircraft and holding all the veteran stories in another building. And opening in October of 2023 is two more museums we saw built, but not ready to enter. One on the holocaust, and one on America after the war. It is the most amazing museum I have ever been to...the draw to my family to have two vacations now in New Orleans solely for this one amazing place.
They have a Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg produced movie "Beyond all Boundaries" that is a must also as a part of the museum experience. While in this theater, each seat had a name for whom it was dedicated, and Davis got the Tom Hanks chair. Just try to leave this theater without tears in your eyes. A war that saw 60 million people die...60 million people!
On our tour we saw the story of one man that captured a German. He tells the story on one of the videos of the German asking him in unbroken English "Hey, where are you from?" "Seattle". The american soldier then learned that the German had worked in a steel mill right across from where he worked. He asked him "What are you doing here?" He replied that Hitler had called all the Germans home, and he was German, so he went. "Well what do you think of yourself now" he asked. The German said "Well, I made a mistake".
We saw a dented helmet of an american that snuck up on one of the Japanese, but was not ready when he turned quickly and hit him on the helmet with his sword. Luckily the american shot the guy before he passed out from the hit. We also saw a cigarette case and a picture of momma that had a bullet hole almost make it thru both, but thick enough to save one soldier.
We saw some really cool pictures of balloon tanks and ballon paratroopers that the English created as decoys in the thousands to trick the Germans on where the D-day attack would come from.
Our lunch was in the soda shop, where everyone got a very depressing BBQ po boy...it had bread, then a thin layer of BBQ that looked like it had been spread with a knife. But I treated all with ice cream and floats for dessert. I forgot about my lactose intolerance which was to hit later.
Into the large aircraft hangar, me and the boys got to speak to a volunteer there about all of the WW2 veterans he has been able to meet and give tours for. I would like to read some of his blogs/stories. He saw my WW2 hat which is only for members, and quickly became our friend sharing some stories about the tanks and other items in this area.
There was also a plane in this room called "Over Exposed" with an image of a lady on the side, that was definitely over exposed. Ruby's eyes went wide, before they bounced away. Davis and Sam quickly walked to the other side, but I think they just wanted to see if the painting over there was of the lady's other side.
We went up to the 3rd floor to see "My Gal Sal" from up high. Magan and the girls also spent alot of time in the veterans story area. You can watch hundreds and hundreds of veterans that they have video recordings of them telling their stories of being in the war. "My Gal Sal" was a bomber that crashed up in the artic, and later was found, pulled apart and pieced back together by a group of veterans over about 15 years. It now flies high in this museum. Davis and Mom went up to the 4th floor...WAY UP THERE. I am both afraid of heights and was started to feel the lactose intolerance kick in, which would have been a bad combination, so I went to the bottom. Davis said that mom could barely walk at that height.
Before leaving the museum, we went into the canteen where they were showing a documentary on Bob Hope and his work keeping the men in good spirits. He was really a good guy, and was happy to make those guys laugh. Often hearing about men there were unable to make the show, and driving otu to do a smaller show for groups of men. They spoke about one show he did in Pavuvu, where he later learned that 45% of the crowd had died. As he was visiting a hospital much later in the war, one wounded man looked up at him with a smile and said Pavuvu....they said Bob just broke down in tears.
How bout this guy by the name of Jimmy Stewart? In the dog tag experience, I learned of him flying in the bombers over Germany thru heavy fire. Even after earning a rank that could keep him on the ground, he said, I can't leave my men...and kept on flying on the bombing runs. At the end of the war, he was not quick enough to get into one of the airplanes home, so he hopped abound the giant ship Queen Mary. And when they finally arrived, he made sure every other man left before he tried to leave the ship. Truly the greatest generation.
And then it was 5PM, and the museum was closed. One day was just barely enough. We walked back to the hotel for a quick stop, then on to the Riverwalk. There we enjoyed some Coffee and Beignets from the world famous Cafe Du Monde. We sat at tables along the mighty Mississippi and ate our beignets, captured the notes for this day, and laughed at Davis randomly posing at the edge of the river. Back at the hotel, we ended the night with Dad joining in the happy salmon game. Sam with his crazy fist bumps that really hurt, and Davis leaving red marks on Belle's arm due to a really happy salmon. I don't understand it, but their smiles make me smile.
And I will end this blog with words from Ernie Pyle...A man I learned about in the museum...one that had the power of words, words that bring tears, words that seem to almost stop time....
“And so it is over. The
catastrophe on one side of the world has run its course. The day that it had so
long seemed would never come has come at last. I suppose our emotions here in
the Pacific are the same as they were among Allies all over the world. First a
shouting of the good news with such joyous surprise that you would think the
shouter himself had brought it about.
It has been seven months since I heard my
last shot in the European War. Now I am as far away from it as it is possible to
get on this globe.
This is written on a little ship lying off the coast of the
Island of Okinawa, just south of Japan, on the other side of the world from
Ardennes.
Last summer I wrote that I hoped the end of
the war could be a gigantic relief, but not an elation. In the joyousness of
high spirits it is so easy for us to forget the dead. Those who are gone would
not wish themselves to be a millstone of gloom around our necks.
But there are so many of the living who have had burned into
their brains forever the unnatural sight of cold dead men scattered over the
hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows of hedge throughout the world.
Dead men by mass production – in one country after another –
month after month and year after year.
Dead men in winter and dead men in summer.
Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they become
monotonous.
Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come almost to hate
them.
Those are the things that you at home need not even try to
understand. To you at home they are columns of figures, or he is a near one who
went way and just didn’t come back. You didn’t see him lying so grotesque and
pasty beside the gravel road in France.
We saw him, saw him by the multiple thousands. That’s the
difference.
We hope above all things
that Japan won’t make the same stubborn mistake that Germany did. You must
credit Germany for her courage in adversity, but you can doubt her good common
sense in fighting blindly on long after there was any doubt whatever about the
outcome.”
This is the last column
ever produced by the famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, who died during the war in Japan. A handwritten draft of it was found in Pyle’s pocket, April
18, 1945, the day he was killed by a Japanese machine-gunner on the island of
Ie Shima.
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