Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy
You provide and I read the daily Nimitz Gray Book sheet.
I’ll take this opportunity to report on the present......
Last week I visited the Admiral Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg Texas.
More Specifically, I visited on two days the “new” George H.W. Bush Gallery that is part of the museum. The Gallery is just fantastic, tracking the war from the 1939 Japanese occupation of China through the destruction of Hiroshima/Nagasaki in August 1945. There was a full size Big Boy bomb
The exhibits are many.......very many. They vary from printed wall graphics to original footage on several size screens. There are excellent flat table screens depicting in graphics and video the progress of several battles. There are a lot of original documents and orders and one log book from Scouting 6 pilot at Midway noting the hits on two carriers. There are small niche exhibits with a host of memorabilia from both always named individuals. There are Jap uniform parts. There are lots of weapons from both sides.
The museum hands out phone like devices to allow you to dial a number and get an audio presentation for the specific area. For me that was over kill and just too much info to comprehend.
You are advised that to see/hear it all takes two full days. Even going fairly slow and detail examination of those parts of interest took us about 8 hours on two different days.
Additionally there is the old Nimitz Museum I visited there three years ago. It pales in comparison to the Bush Gallery and is as I recall devoted mostly to Admiral Nimitz. The building is the hotel owned by his family . Out side are several Naval gun mounts and a gallery depicting the ships and personnel that served in the Pacific.
Down the street the museum has established a large exhibit depicting typical Jap pacific island fortifications. We bought tickets for a one hour reenactment of Marine assault using real weapons and hollywood like explosions..... including a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on a half track and a squad with a real flame thrower.
Prior to the reenactment, all the weapons of both sides were demonstrated by uniformed Marines and Japs. A lead demonstrator was a real cigar chomping order barking retired Marine Colonel.
I have been to several WW II museums, I nNew Orleans, Dayton D.C and Pennsecola and I must say the Nimitz is the best of the lot.
Our mission was to go to Texas, to visit the museum, to view the acres and acres of wild flowers (blue bonnets) and to visit Llano Texas and Cooper’s for the best BBQ in Texas. Our trip was a total success.
I recommend going to visit this museum