Frommer's Review
Opened on the anniversary of D-day, June 6, 2000, this is the creation of the late best-selling author (and Saving Private Ryan consultant) Stephen Ambrose, and it is the only museum of its kind in the country. The official designation as the national World War II museum expanded its scope and prestige. It tells the story of all 19 U.S. amphibious operations worldwide on that fateful day of June 6, 1944 (Normandy may have been the subject of a Spielberg movie, but many other battles were waged and won). A rich collection of artifacts (including some British Spitfire airplanes) coupled with top-of-the-line educational materials (including an oral-history station) makes this one of the highlights of New Orleans. An expansion to be completed in phases will triple the museum's size and cover all the theaters and services in World War II (the Pacific Theater exhibit, including a short and choking film, silent but for carefully chosen classical music, on the atomic bomb, is already in place, but is in spots too gruesome and intense for children), turning this already world-class facility into one of the major museums of the world.
Many of the exhibits emphasize personal stories, including audio exhibits featuring civilians and soldiers alike relating their own experiences. Artifacts from both home and former soldiers help give the sort of specific detail that pulls history off the pages of books. A panorama allows visitors to see just what it was like on those notorious beaches. There is also a copy of Eisenhower's contingency speech, in which he planned to apologize to the country for the failure of D-day -- thankfully, it was a speech that was never needed nor delivered. Volunteers who served on D-day are often around, ready to tell their own history in vivid and riveting detail. The entire place is deeply moving, even for those with only minimal interest in matters military.
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