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The National WWII Museum, formerly known as The National D-Day Museum, is a military history museum located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., on Andrew Higgins Drive between Camp Street and Magazine Street. The museum is located approximately 7 minutes from Decatur Street in the French Quarter. The museum focuses on the contribution made by the United States to Allied victory in World War II. Founded in 2000, it was later designated by the U.S. Congress as America's official National WWII Museum in 2004 The museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliated museum,as part of the Smithsonian Institution's outreach program.The mission statement of the museum emphasizes the American experience in World War II
The museum is located in part in the former Weckerling Brewery, designed by local architect William Fitzner, which was renovated and opened as the D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of D-Day, focusing on the amphibious invasion of Normandy. As the Higgins boats, vital to amphibious operations, were designed, built, and tested in New Orleans by Higgins Industries, the city was the natural home for such a project. Furthermore, New Orleans was the home of historian and author Stephen Ambrose, who spearheaded the effort to build the museum. Ambrose also wrote a book entitled D-Day in 1994, which describes the planning and execution of Operation Neptune, which was launched on June 6, 1944. The early emphasis of the museum on D-Day, the location of Higgins Industries, and Ambrose's connections to New Orleans were all factors in the museum being established in New Orleans.
Within the large atrium of the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion several aircraft are on display, including a Supermarine Spitfire and a Douglas C-47 Skytrain suspended from the ceiling. A LCVP, or "Higgins boat," is also usually on display in this pavilion. The exhibits in this pavilion focus on the amphibious landings in the European theater of the war and on the contributions of the home front. The Louisiana Memorial Pavilion is also home to rotating temporary exhibits, as well as the immersive and interactive train car (part of the larger "Dog Tag Experience" interactive), which opened in 2013.
In January 2013, the museum opened the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, which is the now largest building on the campus.The collection in the US Freedom Pavilion includes a B-17E Flying Fortress bomber, a B-25J Mitchell bomber, an SBD-3 Dauntless, a TBF Avenger, a P-51D Mustang, Corsair F4U-4 and an interactive submarine experience based on the final mission of the USS Tang.[8] The B-17E is the airplane dubbed My Gal Sal, famous for having been lost over Greenland and recovered 53 years later.
Currently, the National World War II Museum has several exhibits paying tribute to the different geographical locations of the war. Beginning with The Arsenal of Democracy exhibit, the museum encourages visitors to interact with the exhibits by placing the interactive dog tag given at the entrance of the exhibits on the provided screens. Each dog tag represents a person who fought in the war or contributed in some way. Each individual followed their own path, with information about that individual only available in the geographical area that corresponds to the person's history.
Tickets to the museum are available to purchase online. The prices range from $0 for children (under 5), World War II Veteran, and companion to a World War II Veteran to $20 for seniors, college students (with ID), active military, and active military spouse. The costlier admission is $27.50 for a senior (65+) to general admission of $30.00. [16] There are also various extra activities like guided tours or special exhibits that have different admission prices. Tickets can also be purchased onsite.
Visitors to the museum are encouraged to allocate roughly 2½ to 3 hours to tour the museum. Upon arriving, visitors are encouraged to wait in line to board a train. The train is a simulation exhibit that mimics the experience of soldiers going off to war. In the train, the interactive dog tag is used to determine which individual a visitor will be following. The information is provided by screens on the back of the bench seats. Once the short train journey has ended, visitors are encouraged to explore the museum in whichever way they may choose. An award-winning 4-D film, Beyond All Boundaries, is shown in the Solomon Victory Theater and gives the visitor an overview of the war on every front. Other multimedia displays are integrated into most of the museum's exhibits, notably the dozens of video oral histories conducted with veterans of the war by museum staff. The museum currently houses two restaurants, the American Sector Restaurant & Bar and the Soda Shop.