Went to the National World War II Museum yesterday...

[muddyboots]

No sign of the B24 yet. What a waste of twenty dollars. It is geared to those totally ignorant of anything about WWII. Waste of several hours wndering around in crowds of people asking each other if the Germans bombed Pearl harbor...I finally left and went across the street to the Museum of SOuthern Art. Also, the American sector Restaurant was a waste of money. Terrible po boy sandwhich.

[Dan K]

And for only $250 you could've looked inside the Sherman.

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/plan-a ... t-the.html

For that price one should at least get to take her for a quick spin down Magazine Street.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

The guiding spirit behind this endeavour was Stephen Ambrose. He was all about the buck. A gentleman from the Midwest had restored a LCVP as he had been in charge of one in the South Paciific during the war. he heard of the Higgins Boat project and he donated his fully restored WW2 vintage LCVP to the Museum. Well that would have ended the drive to raise funds to find one and restore it. So the good Dr. sold it to a museum in Europe and went on his way soliciting funds . The Museum is a cash cow and who knows how much has been raised under the guise of other projects ? It sure doesn't seem like the collection is that extensive and most of it is donated.

[Forgotten Field]

Now wait a minute! Muddy Boots in New Orleans, and you can't find a decent poboy? Didn't you learn how to follow your nose? And what the he[[ are you doing eating a poboy with all that good gumbo down there? Don't tell me you've lost your sensability....

[muddyboots]

I should of went to Johnny's acrss from the Acme Oyster house but I wanted to stay in the area so I could go to another museum.

[Punisher05]

Hey Muddy, if you get a chance the Confederate Museum next to the WW2 Museum is the largest collection of Civil War artifacts outside of Richmond. Some pretty good stuff in there, as long as you're into that kind of thing.

And as far as the NWW2M is concerned, the airplanes were cool, the guns were cool, but yes the rest is geared towards the totally ignorant.


-Brandon

[muddyboots]

Brandon, I grew up in New Orleans so I went to the Civil War Museum as a kid. It's my favorite building i the city. I love that brown stone they built it from That and the big library Uptown are awesome buildings.

Last edited by muddyboots on Sun Feb 20, 2011 9:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Pat Carry]

Hey Muddy, if you get a chance the Confederate Museum next to the WW2 Museum is the largest collection of Civil War artifacts outside of Richmond. Some pretty good stuff in there, as long as you're into that kind of thing.

And as far as the NWW2M is concerned, the airplanes were cool, the guns were cool, but yes the rest is geared towards the totally ignorant.


-Brandon

Since probabaly 80% of the population is totally ignorant of ancient history like WW2, isnt that a good way for the museum to present the war?

[muddyboots]

Pat, it was a boring experience. Even if I didn't know all the history it was designed to eat you and poop you out the exit as efficiently as possible with what seems like little thought about the actual experience.

[Punisher05]

Unfortunately Pat, I'd agree with both of you. There are a few things they do very very well, mostly found at the glassed-in front of the museum. The rest just seems...off. Muddy had it right when he said it was largely boring. It just seemed like something was missing. I'm hoping they are able to make a number of improvements when the annex across the street is finished.

Speaking of being ignorant of the war...a good friend of mine is a researcher who works at the museum. During Katrina they were afraid the museum would have some of the more important artifacts ripped out by indigenous personnel. Turns out the only things they stole were out of the gift shop...

I know what you mean Muddy! You don't see buildings like that anymore...I grew up outside the city myself.

Cheers-

Brandon

[Jerry O'Neill]

Back in December of 2001, my wife and I visited the Museum as part of the Opening ceremonies of the Pacific Wing when it was the National D-Day Museum.
We both found it very well done and a moving experience. Others in our group thought there wasn't enough "hardware" and didn't like it.
To each his own.
Jerry

[p51]

The guiding spirit behind this endeavour was Stephen Ambrose. He was all about the buck. A gentleman from the Midwest had restored a LCVP as he had been in charge of one in the South Paciific during the war. he heard of the Higgins Boat project and he donated his fully restored WW2 vintage LCVP to the Museum. Well that would have ended the drive to raise funds to find one and restore it. So the good Dr. sold it to a museum in Europe and went on his way soliciting funds . The Museum is a cash cow and who knows how much has been raised under the guise of other projects ? It sure doesn't seem like the collection is that extensive and most of it is donated.

I’d give anything to know where that Higgins boat went. In 1992, I participated in a re-enactment on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain near the campus as a fund raiser for the museum. I was in the first group to jump out of that boat, and got on CNN and the front page of the Times Picayune for it. Marvin Perrett piloted the boat, and was a Coast Guard landing craft driver in WW2. He participated in Normandy and Iwo Jima. Really good guy, I heard he passed a few years ago. I also have heard that the boat we were in was sold but I have never been able to find out to where. If ANYONE knows, please let me know.
As for the museum itself, I too have heard it’s mostly geared toward “storytelling” and not to the artifacts themselves. That’s a real shame as plenty of good museums have both. I know lots of incredible stuff has been donated to them that will likely never be seen by the public.

[Kyleb]

Back in December of 2001, my wife and I visited the Museum as part of the Opening ceremonies of the Pacific Wing when it was the National D-Day Museum.
We both found it very well done and a moving experience. Others in our group thought there wasn't enough "hardware" and didn't like it.
To each his own.
Jerry

I visited a couple of months after you and was pleased with the experience.

As someone said, they seem focused on the story, rather than the hardware. I always thought the story was the important part. The hardware just helps provide a better frame of reference.

[CDF]

Marvin Perrett piloted the boat, and was a Coast Guard landing craft driver in WW2.

Marvin J. Perrett pilots his Higgins type landing craft on lake Pontchartrain May 2, 2007.

http://coastguardnews.com/coast-guard-h ... 007/05/07/

[Pathfinder]

Hey Jiggers...

Back in the 90s, when I was living in Dayton, a friend of mine called me from Columbus and told me that there was a Higgins Boat at Rickenbacker AFB that was going to be bulldozed in the BRAC program. I love PT boats so zoomed over there the next day thinking I was going to find a 78 foot PT Boat....turns out it was an LCVP....Higgins Boat!

It was sitting behind a small office building and was sort of the base poster board. Units could put their insignia on it...etc. Seeing the bulldozer not 50 yards away, I went over to the BRAC office and got them to bypass the LCVP until my group could arrange removal.

Under the gray paint I could just see the hull number PA 36-7. Looking this up I discovered this was the USS CAMBRIA. A USCG transport with 6 battle stars from WW2.

A friend of mine suggested we put an ad in PROCEEDINGS and find vets of CAMBRIA..and then he called me the next day saying that while looking thru the magazine to determine the format of reunion notices etc, he found a 1/3 page bio on the CAMBRIA. Then he found their reunion notice and that the contact for the crew was in Columbus, OH---hmmmmm---and lived on Alum Creek Rd.....hmmmm about 700 yards from the boat.

I called this man, Sam Balfiore, and asked him about CAMBRIA. Then asked him what he did on the ship---cox'n in the boats. Then asked him when the last time was he saw an LCVP--1946 at Pearl Harbor. I told him about the LCVP at Rickenbacker and he told me that was BS...he was a contractor and had poured more concrete at Rickenbacker than you could ever imagine and he had never seen an LCVP there. After I told him that the boat had the hull markings from the CAMBRIA he accepted my offer to pick him up and go over there. We did that the next day and he flipped out!

We then got BRAC to donate the boat to us, and we had it hauled up to a farm near Muirfield golf course. We never did get around to restoring it, but during that time I did contact the Ambrose people and they declined our offer to come and get it. Maybe they declined because it was not a pure Higgins boat--Sam--the vet--thought it was a Chris Craft model. But it was wood sided and had the post war H frame ramp. It had the short aft deck--no gun tubs.

Subsequently I donated it to Motts Military Museum south of Columbus who did a resto on it and it is currently displayed there.

I saw a press release from the NWW2M when they were doing the Higgins boat build that said that "rumors of a Higgins boat in Ohio proved to be untrue." Well with a minimum of work (gun tubs and ramp "chin") this could have become a Higgins.

While looking for a proper Grey-Marine diesel to replace the rusted brick of an engine I also found two VN vintage landing craft in Newark, OH--an LCVP and an LCM--sitting in a guys yard in a neighborhood on top of a hill. They were fiberglass hulls.

How does an LCVP get to Columbus, OH?

It appears that CAMBRIA did a Great Lakes tour in the 50s after it landed US troops in Lebanon and it is believed that the boat was left behind up near Cleveland during that trip. It then went to something called the Ohio Naval Militia which was sort of a Coast Guard Axillary. (No offense to the USCGA!) Then it was picked up by the Air Force and placed at a small base in northern Ohio where the base CO had visions of creating a small museum. When that didn't fly it wound up at Rickenbacker.

Somewhere around here I have a video tape of the move. It was something to see when the boat mover hoisted the thing up by its WW2 cables!

I believe that there is a real Higgins boat currently being restored at the Big Red 1 Museum. If there was another one in Ohio or the mid west at the same time as ours I don't recall hearing about it.

As far as aircraft go, I did the genealogy on the C-47 NWW2M has hanging from their ceiling. It is the real 42-93096--it was Pathfinder Plane #17 for Normandy carrying 2/508 PIR Pathfinders. I followed it from its freight use through two other owners to the guy who put it on Ebay and encouraged NWW2M to get it. Fellow WIXer N3NJeff was very helpful with the history of its post-service life when it flew freight out of Vermont.

Anyway, that's the story of the LCVP from Ohio.

Dave
formerly Dayton, OH
now Alpharetta, GA