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Fredericksburg: Bush gallery expands WWII museum
By Kathryn Straach / The Dallas Morning News Published in The Dallas Morning News: 05.23.99
The opening of the George Bush Gallery of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg came at an appropriate time.
After years of peacetime, the country is starting to remember the atrocities of war. First there was the release of Saving Private Ryan. Then came The Thin Red Line. Then the images of discord jumped off the big screen and into our living rooms with the conflict in Kosovo.
Now World War II is being personalized in the $3 million expansion to the Admiral Nimitz Museum and Historical Center with a gallery that bears the former president's name.
Designed as a walk through history, the new gallery is displayed in chronological order to help visitors understand the elements leading up to the war and its conclusion. The current display focuses on Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal, says Katherine Halamicek, publicity coordinator, with additions to be made in the next phase of the project.
With sound effects, backgrounds and artifacts working together - with particular attention to detail - the exhibit creates a near virtual-reality environment.
Visitors will view a Japanese midget sub preparing for its attack on Pearl Harbor, see a B-25 bomber on the deck of an aircraft carrier, and walk onto a Guadalcanal airstrip at night.
One exhibit tells the story of former President Bush as a young pilot. On Sept. 2, 1944, he was sent to bomb an enemy communications center on the island of Chi Chi Jima near Iwo Jima. His plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire from the island. Mr. Bush was able to keep the burning plane on course to drop his bombs before he parachuted into the sea. He was pulled aboard the USS Finback submarine, and later he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his action.
It is fitting that the gallery is named for Mr. Bush, the last in an unbroken line of presidents who fought or served during World War II stretching back to Franklin Roosevelt. Mr. Bush fought under Adm. Nimitz in the Pacific, and the museum houses the same type of plane that he flew.
The 23,000-square-foot Bush Gallery is just one component of the new national museum, which in later phases will include the Center for Pacific War Studies (a new library and archives) and additional exhibit areas. All this will be a part of the Admiral Nimitz Museum and Historical Center, a state historical park managed by Texas Parks and Wildlife.
The current Nimitz Museum, with its distinctive steamboat architecture, tells the story of Chester Nimitz, who was born in Fredericksburg and became a five-star Fleet Admiral.
The Historical Center also includes the History Walk of the Pacific War, 1 1/2 blocks from the main museum, featuring a re-creation of a battlefield, with bunkers, tunnels and pill boxes. It offers other artifacts such as a Sherman tank, an amphibious landing craft and a Japanese dive bomber.
Behind the museum is the Japanese Garden of Peace, a gift from the people of Japan. The center also houses the Victory and Memorial Walls along the Veteran's Walk of Honor, the Plaza of the Presidents.
The Admiral Nimitz Museum is open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students, free for age 6 and younger. For more information, call 830-997-4379; www.tpwd.state.tx.us.