About Us
While our memorial site contains much to see, including a permanently installed retired Vietnam
Traveling Wall, there's a lot more to update you on.
A very important project this summer has been the construction of a new 6,000 square foot museum. We are pleased to announce its dedication.
Monday, July 4th the new War History Museum was unveiled in front of a full pavilion of
family, friends, and veterans. Eric Johnson, 2nd Vice Commander, presented W. Paul Wolf with an engraved plaque dedicating the new museum named in his honor.
The expansive 6,000 square foot structure is currently under construction.
Paul is a Korean Veteran and has made a generous donation and the Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum is grateful to place his name on the museum.
All of his family was in attendance at this celebration.
Robert Thomas, curator, had this to say about the future of our collections:
Museum New and Old
by Robert Thomas
As the season changes from summer to fall, the
construction of the new museum should be completed
and into operation in November on Veteran’s
Day. The museum will have some new features to
carry the honoring of all veterans. The new facility
will be three times larger and allow a little over two
times the artifacts to be displayed.
well as guests in a relaxed setting.
The R&R (Rest
and Relaxation) Picnic area will be located under
the expanded roof attached to the north side of the
museum. It will hold picnic tables that are easily
accessible for the disabled using wheelchairs,
walkers or canes.
The old museum will be re-purposed to two new
features. The entrance room will become the Medal
of Honor Research Library to honor the recipients
of our nation’s highest award. It will feature a section
on biographies and autobiographies. Other sections
will be yearbooks from training to service time in
war and peace, history of our nation’s wars to
include the colonial wars before the American
Revolution, an equipment section that features
everything from weapons, vehicles and uniforms
with accessories, and a final section of military
manuals from field manuals to technical bulletins
and manuals.
The original main museum area will
become a banquet/lecture hall for special events,
history guest lecturers, special documentary/history
movie viewing and a new rental area. It will honor
Major General Dailey, whom was the leader of our
founders unit in World War I, the US Army Sixth
Engineers which saw action with the Third Division
and nearby British and French Army units. This
room was originally used for the reunions of the
Sixth Engineers from 1952 to 1971 and it was named
for Major General Edmund Dailey.
The new museum will include a new Gift Shop,
Paul’s Coffee Cafe, and the R&R Picnic area. The
Coffee Café will be an area for our Veterans to gather
for casual conversation to fellow Veterans, as
All the original exhibits will be moved into the
new museum and expanded with new artifacts,
maps, photos, paintings, uniformed mannequins,
and the history of the wars/conflicts. A new group
of exhibits will feature Weapons of War: Women
in the Service when they were a sub-branch of the
services, Organizations that have helped the military
services, Items of Honor left at our Memorials on
the grounds, and American Heroes that features
military personnel and units that honor and served
the United States, the center location will hold the
special feature exhibit(s).
First feature exhibit will
bring forth the War on Terror starting with 9/11
attack on our nation and our forces bringing the
conflict to the home of terrorist locations in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
MORE TO SHARE!
Thanks to a generous donation of $150,000 from the Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution in memory of Jeanette Thompson Sterling, construction will begin this fall on the Sterling Chapel with anticipated completion date of spring 2023.
