A labor of love one mile east of Mineral Wells is seeking public help to add a second phase to the National Vietnam War Museum.
“Our museum will never accept money from the government,” Board Treasurer Jim Messinger said, in announcing a $1.5 million fundraising campaign for Phase II at the museum.
The opening of Phase I in June 2022 let the museum finally spread its artifacts and exhibits from a trailer home into a 20,000-square-foot, two-story facility.
Inside, visitors can learn about the country’s military involvement in the Southeast Asian conflict via multiple exhibits.
They tell the story of the war, from France’s failed plunge into the country to America’s earliest forays of “advisors” to the hasty evacuation of Saigon in 1975.
A replica of the Resolute Desk from the Oval Office is a central exhibit on the upper floor.
Phase II will add five or six more galleries, Messinger said.
“We haven’t identified all of the exhibits yet,” he said. “The big draw will be a Huey (helicopter) inside the building. and you’ll be able to go up to the second floor and look down on it.”
Supporters have two paths to donate.
“The simplest thing is to come by the museum and say you’re interested in volunteering, or if you just want to donate bring a donation out,” Messinger said.
Donations also can be made on the museum’s website, www.nationalvnwarmuseum.org/.
Messinger acknowledged the Herculean fundraising challenge the board and new Curator Ian Tillett have taken on.
The museum’s nature, however, has been one of incremental steps beginning with those of the Vietnam helicopter pilots who started the endeavor more than a quarter century ago.
“We incorporated in 1997 and the board met to talk about what we were going to do,” Messinger recalled. “We opened a little garden the first year in business. and then we did something else and then we did something else and then we did something else for 26 years.”
Organizers are asking anyone interested in attending the Oct. 21 groundbreaking to RSVP to [email protected] or call 682-229-8294.
Keynote speaker at the groundbreaking will be Col. Donald ‘Doc’ Ballard, (ret.), a Medal of Honor recipient for leaping on an unexploded grenade to shield five fellow Marines — and swiftly tossing it away when it failed to explode.
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(c) 2023 Weatherford Democrat
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