I’m Sooo excited for the grand opening of the new theater next week at the National WWII Museum. I will be pretty much be there all day and night on Friday November 6th with Sir JJ and then Saturday with my family.
Now – on to this interesting tidbit…. There was an article printed in the Washington Times on October 15th called, “U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects.” It mentioned $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans in this article. I had no idea that UNO was planning on building a museum, since we have the National WWII Museum here. This did not make any sense. I then proceeded to place several phone calls to UNO and they had no idea what I was talking about. I also contacted the National WWII Museum and asked “In this article it mentioned $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans. Is this one in the same with your museum?”
Today, I received the following answer:
To answer your question, there are a number of inaccuracies in this piece. First of all, the funds would be appropriated to the expansion of The National World War II Museum, in particular, The US Freedom Pavilion. They would not be used to fund a new museum at UNO.
But more importantly, these funds do not take one penny away from our troops. The money would come from the a separate section of the defense budget than Operations and Management (which allots $636.3 billion to our military – the same amount in last year’s defense bill). None of the projects listed in this story would be funded by O&M funds.
One of the primary goals of the Museum is to honor our WWII vets but we also have a commitment to military past and present. I hope this clears up the confusion but if you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to ask.
~Kacey Hill Marketing and Public Relations from the National WWII Museum~
Interesting – seems like it is possible the article was a big goof up???
Also, last week I posted a most provocative and controversial letter written by a friend of mine, regarding the docent training at the National WWII Museum. Since then , he has attended an additional training class and has yet to confirm a meeting he requested. I will let you know as I know anything.
You do realise the Nat’l WWII Museum began as the D-Day Museum, and was the brainchild of Dr. Ambrose and others in the UNO History Dept…? This would account for the confusion of a reporter who I suspect didn’t do his homework, ~or~ decided he needed a “fact” to flesh out a story whose point of view he determined before researching it.