When The National Guard Memorial Museum opened March 17, 2003, in Washington, D.C., the National Guard Educational Foundation (NGEF) had exhaustively compiled Guard artifacts from 17th century to almost that day.
The foundation's purpose? To tell the Guard story, highlight its actions at home and overseas. New events, however, outpaced the museum two days later when Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) began. Those events wrote a new chapter in the Guard story.
Although Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) began in October 2001, the original museum design didn't include OEF, and only a few items were secured from the homeland security missions of Operation Noble Eagle before the museum's dedication.
Despite having no place in the museum to showcase current operations, the museum quietly solicited and collected artifacts from OEF/OIF veterans. But most of them remained out of sight, the Guard story in places like Iraq and Afghanistan going largely untold to museum visitors.
Things will change this fall, however, when the new Global War on Terror (GWOT) exhibit opens to provide full-blown highlights of the Guard's most recent and publicized missions.
For the past two years, OEF and OIF artifacts have occupied two display cases at the museum's entrance. As the war on terror escalated, NGEF felt the need to update the museum with a permanent exhibit.
"Overall, it's going to bring the museum up to date with the history of the Guard, because right now it stops just after 9/11." says Jason Hall, NGEF director, of the new project that will replace the museum's Today and Tomorrow exhibit. "We don't want the museum to become stale. This will keep it fresh and new."
The new exhibit is set to open during NGAUS Industry Day Dec. 6, but many things had to fall in place before going ahead with the museum's first major overhaul since its opening more than three years ago.
The first order of business was securing funds for the project.
Mr. Hall, working with Hazell Booker, NGAUS director of industry and association liaison, encouraged $500 donations from more than 100 benefactors to cover the costs of the exhibit (list begins on page 97).
The NGEF board of directors approved the fundraiser in March. For three months, corporate members, state associations and individuals donated more than $50,000 for the project.
"We were overwhelmed by their generosity in recognizing what an important exhibit this was," Ms. Booker says. "It was decided to hold the unveiling during Industry Day so that many of the corporate donors could be in attendance."
In addition, senior Guard leaders and distinguished guests will receive invitations to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and members of both NGAUS and the NGEF board of directors will attend. Future issues of NATIONAL GUARD and NGAUS Notes, the association's weekly electronic newsletter, will provide further event details.
The GWOT exhibit will feature some artifacts already on display. These include a ballot from the first free Iraq election, the infamous deck of cards featuring Iraq's "most wanted" and several items taken from an insurgent.
Two recently donated uniforms comprise the exhibit's centerpiece, however.
One is from an Arizona Army Guard captain who served as a transportation officer in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A female District of Columbia Air Guard pilot's uniform used in missions flown over Iraq will round out the display.
In addition to new artifacts, visitors will have access to hundreds of digital images of Guardsmen serving in Iraq and Afghanistan via a touch-screen monitor.
This living museum feature will receive periodic updates as new photos arrive from the front lines. Visitors will be able to search by state to identify units serving in OEF and OIF.
The more items the museum receives, the more updated the entire exhibit will be. With an interchangeable museum setup, NGEF staff will feature new objects as they are donated.
"We can never have enough," Mr. Hall says.
But the decision to display these new items was much more involved than simply obtaining them.
In February, retired Chief Warrant Officer 2 John Listman, former NGEF historian, was talking with an old acquaintance, Doug Hartman, president of Hartman Historical Services, about the new exhibit. The two had worked together in the early 1990s while Mr. Hartman served in the Nebraska Army Guard.
After visiting the museum, Mr. Hartman was eager to be involved. He responded to the foundation's formal request for proposals last spring to design and build the new exhibit and beat two other bids to win approval from the NGEF board of directors in July.
"Most of the work he's done is from military history exhibits; he knows military history," Mr. Hall says. "For the price, we're getting more-with the interactive possibilities and aesthetics-than anyone else could offer."
Mr. Hartman enlisted in the Nebraska Guard in December 1982 and retired in 2003 as a captain. He spent nine years enlisted and 11 years as an officer, including a stint as the state's command historian. He became a NGAUS member in 1991 and is now a life member.
"It is a great museum," he says. "And I want to make it better."
His credits include several commemorative projects-both military and nonmilitary.
Although he lists the Johnny Carson Exhibit in Norfolk, Neb., and the Wild Kingdom traveling exhibit as some of his more memorable projects, he now "jumps at the opportunity" to work on military exhibits.
They include National Guard exhibits at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Camp Robinson, Ark., Lincoln, Neb., and Saint Lo, France. He also is under contract with the National Guard Bureau to design a traveling exhibit.
"Now that I'm out of the Guard, I don't get a chance to do much military history," he says. "It's my passion."
With a master's degree in American military history from Kansas State University and a bachelor's of history from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Mr. Hartman wrote Nebraska's Miliita: The History of the Army and Air National Guard, 1854-1991 and has published more than 30 articles in various journals and magazines on military topics.
He now runs a one-man operation from his home in Omaha, Neb., doing research, measurements and fabrication himself. This includes building display cases and creating captions. NGEF staff will provide the exhibit's text.
Mr. Hartman would like to add what he calls "a wow factor," offering his unique design skills.
He will use a face-mounted adhesive on Plexiglas to introduce the objects. He has a friend that helps him with audiovisual work.
The four-month window from approval to unveiling makes for a tight schedule for the exhibit.
The museum's renovation will begin in early November. Mr. Hartman will need three days to "sanitize" the exhibit area. This includes extracting current inventory and painting the walls.
He will return for five days after Thanksgiving to install the new artifacts. The contract requires final product completion by Dec. 1. This gives the staff a few days to familiarize themselves with the exhibit and make any last minute adjustments before the Dec. 6 dedication.
The exhibit area is an additional challenge for Mr. Hartman.
"We have a lot of story and not a lot of space," he says
Starting in December, Mr. Hall welcomes all visitors to view the new exhibit.
"We want to highlight the Guard's involvement around the war on terror by telling the stories and untold stories in order to educate the public and the Guard family," Mr. Hall says.
© 2006 National Guard Association of the United States Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: National Guard
