Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 15

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2001 SECTION DEAR ABBY Need help sorting out your life? C3 MORE INSIDE lifestyles, C2-3 Comics, C4 Entertainment, C5-7 Classifieds, C8-16 QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? CONTACT FEATURES EDITOR BETH HELDEBRANDT AT 235-5656 OR 345-7025, ext. L9 UVU L9 UvU 15) LM I I Museum honors those who died on the beaches of Normandy and those who survived June 6, 1944 former home of the Louisiana Brewery, constructed in 1856. The entire site of the complex measures about 70,500 square feet, with 16,000 square feet used by the gallery of the museum, described this way: "Four state-of-the- art, interactive exhibits that inter mixes oral histories from veterans worldwide, artifacts, documents and photographs with hands-on activities and never before seen film footage. These series of exhibits take museum visitors through the weeks and days leading up to D-Day of World War II to the foggy morning of June 6, when the Allies landed on the beaches of Among the highlights: Depiction of the imbalance of military power of the United States vs. Germany and Japan in the late 1930s; Life on the home front as war mobilization begins; Preparation for Overlord, code name for the D-Day landings; Recreation of a An American para 257 OR E-MAIL AT "Eisenhower went on to explain, 'If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), we never could have landed over an open beach.

The whole strategy of the war would have been Visitors in the "Higgins Boats" gallery of the museum see the three stages of the boat Higgins, of New Orleans, built by the thousands. Entrance to the museum is through the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, named in honor of the state's veterans and home front workers during the war. Displays include a reproduction of a LC VP buut from World War II plans; a Navy Avenger airplane like the one ex-President George Bush was flying when he was shot down in the Pacific; a Spitfire, the plane flown by the RAF in its battle against Hemann Goering's Luftwaffe; a German staff car; and an American Sherman tank. The museum was dedicated on June 6, 2000, and attendance went over the 300,000 mark on April 26, 2001. The museum will celebrate its one-year anniversary on Wednesday.

Visitors ill rub elbows with World War II re-enactors, see new museum artifacts and visit with WWII veterans. A Victory Ball was scheduled for today at the Hilton Riverside. Many museum volunteers who are WWII veterans will share their experiences and guide visitors "through the museum and the history it represents. The museum will display posters and handouts detailing the hour-by-hour timeline." Also, visitors on the anniversary observation can share their thoughts about veterans by writing postcards, which will be given to WWII veterans in the Veterans Administration Hospital in New Orleans. The museum's first major expansion is scheduled to open on Dec.

7 on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Titled "The D-Day invasion in the Pacific," the new gallery will include a combination of photos, videos, maps, quotes, artifacts and i4 tk 1 trooper in complete Jump equipment. By Harry Read 1 General Dwight D. Eisenhower it I was the beginning of the "Great JL Crusade." To the young men who would make it happen it was a day of blood, death and fear. "It" was June 6, 1944, reverently remembered as "D-Day." "It" was the day the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy beaches code named Sword, Gold, Juno, Utah, and the bloodiest of them all, Omaha, where Americans overcame confusion and carnage with courage and the beachhead at Omaha was secured.

Here's Ernie Pyle, the much loved, slight Hoosjer who was probably the best of the overseas corps of correspondents: "I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France (D plus one). It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn't know they were in the water, for they were dead. The strong, swirling tides of the Normandy coastline shift the contours of the sandy beach as they move in and out.

They carry soldiers' bodies out to sea, and later they return them. They cover the corpses of heroes with sand, and then in their whims they uncover them Now these men, those who died on the beaches that June 6, and those who survived that day and all the terrible days ahead, have been remembered. And that honored remembrance also covers all the men and women who served in the military, along with "Rosie the Riveter" and her colleagues on the civilian front. The National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, is the vehicle for this remembrance. Located in the heart of the city's historic warehouse district, the museum complex consists of a renovated, four-story, 19th-century warehouse and the adjoining four-story, glassfronted Louisiana Memorial Pavilion.

The museum's primary exhibit space is the -Aljffi-J- fought across France in either armor or infantry is a recreation of the iron- tough hedgerow that greatly slowed advances in some sectors. Included in a display of American weapons is a Thpmpson sub-machine gun, a air-cooled machine gun, a carbine and an Ml Garand with rocket launcher. Also shown are German weapons used in infantry support. Part of the genius apparent in the museum's exhibits is a striking balance between high technology ana yet simplicity and clarity. Founder and guiding light of the museum is Stephen Ambrose, WWII historian and best-selling author.

Mission of the museum: "The National D-Day Museum celebrates the American spirit, the teamwork, opti mism, courage and sacrifice of the men and women who won World War II, and promotes the exploration and expression of these values by future generations." But why build it in New Orleans? Here's Ambrose in an excerpt from his book "D-Day: The Climatic Battle of World War "The first time I met General Eisenhower in 1964 in his office in Gettysburg, where he had called me to discuss the possibility of becoming one of the editors of his official papers, he said at the end of his conversation, 'I notice you are teaching in New Orleans. Did you ever know Andrew I replied. 'He died before I moved to the too Eisenhower said. 'He is the man who won the war for i i- mo'i'o a 1 interactive touch screens and oral histories. The exhibit will close with giant photographs of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri and Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on VJ Day.

The museum is located at 945 Magazine New Orleans. The southern trip for Edgar and Coles county residents, which included Vicksburg and Natchez, was arranged by the Nifty-Fifty club of the Citizens National Bank and the Good News Travels, Pimento, Ind. "D-Day Remembered" is the name of a film museum visitors can see. By Charles Guggeheim, it combines footage and photos from American, British and German archives, with voices of the people who participated in the planning and execution of the invasion. There can probably be no better definition of war than the eight words by one of those voices: "When you go to war, someone don't comeback." The film received an Academy Award nomination.

In excerpts from an oral history by D-Day participants, a German defender in Normandy described the bombardment-that preceded the landings. And then: "The sea had come alive assault boats and landing craft rapidly approached the beach We heard the first machine gun (German) burst. Within seconds the first assault troops collapsed The surf brought a gruesome cargo ashore the dead flotated and tossed in the water." A final thought: On the day World War II began, Gen. Eisenhower wrote his brother: "Hitler should beware of the fury of an aroused democracy." Ike was right. And that's what the National D-Day Museum is all about.

Read of Charleston is a former newspaper reporter and retired public relations official from Eastern Illinois University. SI DMI TIH) PHOTO at the top of the page is the official logo I .4 tn itri'iiniiirniTri i rinffi'ii iTrr-lrrni'i ii i 1 1 iwiri 1-m German observation and command post (with viewing slots through which visitors can get a panoramic view of what German defenders would have seen in the English channel); Air and sea armada displays that depict the greatest invasion force in history (5,333 ships and landing craft carrying 175,000 troops across 100 miles of the turbulent English Channel); And, D-Day: the Beaches. Probably of general interest to every ex- GI who ever lived in a barracks is a recreation of quarters, including double-decker bunks. Of specific interest to the men who 1 SI'BMITITJ) PHOTOS At top, among the displays in the National D-Day Museum In New Orleans, is a helmet that saved the life of Cpl. Kenneth Kassel of the U.S.

Navy. "Nightdrop into Normandy," above, re-creates the aftermath of the crash of a CG4A, yVACQ gliderJnNorrnandy during the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. Above, Army soldiers embark on a Higgins Boat on June 6, 1944. The D-Day logo of the National D-Day Museum..