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Old 07-20-2018, 03:13 PM
 
17,505 posts, read 17,415,571 times
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Went to this museum yesterday. As big as it is, there’s ongoing construction to add ore exhibits. It’s well worth a visit. There are side booths with videos of veterans telling their stories, equipment from the war, and some planes and landing boats. There are two exhibits that cost extra. The first is a 4D movie about the war which includes vibrating seats, smoke to go with fire and explosions, replicas to appear as part of the movie, and even simulated snow to go with winter images of war. Narration by Tom Hanks. The other pay exhibit is the submarine USS Tang. Not the actual submarine since it sunk. Visitors are given a card of a sailor, kind of like a baseball card with his name, rank, position, etc. the visitor goes inside to the station number of the cars they received. The station has a task for the visitor during the re-enactment. It’s a 10 minute re-enactment of a battle that took hours before the sub was hit and sunk. Steam like mist shoots out from some places at the moment of the hit. When we exit there is a video of the actual survivors telling their story. Several of the sailors managed to escape the sunken sub alive without outside help. They were then picked up by Japanese ships and sent to a Japanese POW camp. There were photos of them when released from the camp. After the video is a remembrance wall of photos of the crew members with their names. The ones who survived the sinking were back lighted to show they had survived. We got to keep the card. We only went for one day so I didn’t get to see/hear all the different stories. A second day would have given us time to see/hear them.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/
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Old 07-20-2018, 03:45 PM
 
Location: WMU D1, NH
1,087 posts, read 1,032,240 times
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It's one of those must see museums if you're in the area. It is starting to become a two day museum, but most of it can be seen in one day.

I have been twice now. Once ten years ago, the first time I was stationed at Polk, and again last month as I am stationed at Polk a second time.

I love the museum, and the changes and additions they have made are very impressive. I am slightly disappointed they took away a couple of the other hour long "movies", but the new one in the theater makes up for it. I haven't seen the Tang exhibit as I only had a day and it really doesn't interest me as much. I may hit it the next time I am there.

My recommendation is to watch every one of the small movies that last anywhere from 2-10 minutes throughout the museum. There are many recording of first person accounts spread throughout. Great to sit and listen to especially if you have family ties to that part of the war, have served in some of those units, or units that were nearby.
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Old 07-20-2018, 03:58 PM
 
17,505 posts, read 17,415,571 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abnfdc View Post
It's one of those must see museums if you're in the area. It is starting to become a two day museum, but most of it can be seen in one day.

I have been twice now. Once ten years ago, the first time I was stationed at Polk, and again last month as I am stationed at Polk a second time.

I love the museum, and the changes and additions they have made are very impressive. I am slightly disappointed they took away a couple of the other hour long "movies", but the new one in the theater makes up for it. I haven't seen the Tang exhibit as I only had a day and it really doesn't interest me as much. I may hit it the next time I am there.

My recommendation is to watch every one of the small movies that last anywhere from 2-10 minutes throughout the museum. There are many recording of first person accounts spread throughout. Great to sit and listen to especially if you have family ties to that part of the war, have served in some of those units, or units that were nearby.
I hope to go back and watch those small videos. My grandfather, because he was Cajun, was one of the soldiers used as interpreters in France during the war. My father-in-law wasn’t in combat but he had a job few would envy him for. He was a Navy hospital corpsman in Pearl Harbor (after the attack) and worked in the morgue caring for the dead who were killed in the Pacific battles before being sent back home to family.
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Old 07-20-2018, 05:24 PM
 
Location: Near Falls Lake
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I went through it with a couple of WW2 vets....very educational and moving.
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Old 07-21-2018, 02:37 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
13,562 posts, read 10,298,214 times
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Great museum! I believe one of the big movers behind it was Stephen Ambroase, who wrote a number of books on WWII from the point of view of the soldier in the field.
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