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Vietnam Experience Exhibit to Open November 8
Chris Hauff Oct 28, 2014The Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is using state-of-the-art technology to bring the history of the Vietnam War to life in a new two and one-half acre Vietnam Experience Exhibit. The new exhibit opens on Saturday, Nov. 8. It features more than a dozen components that simulate life during wartime in a “Brown Water Navy” support base and a U.S. Marine Corps artillery fire base.
While in the Vietnam Experience, visitors feel like they have traveled back in time and are standing in the war zone. They are able get inside rare artifacts like a MK1 River Patrol Boat (PBR) that is displayed and floating in a newly constructed lagoon. New landscaping around the exhibit gives the impression that the visitor is on the edge of a jungle location.
In addition to the PBR, three different types of helicopters are on display along with a 105 Howitzer gun. As visitors make their way in and out of new exhibit areas like a mess hall, and climb onto an observation tower, they hear the sound of jet aircraft and helicopters flying over their heads. Holograms bring Marine officers to life in an exciting 3-D production.
“This exhibit was built to honor the veterans who served in the Vietnam War and to educate new generations about this war that defined America after WWII,” said Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum Executive Director Mac Burdette. “The Vietnam Experience is something that will not only bring the history of the war to life, but will also serve as a place for Vietnam veterans, their families and others to reflect on wartime experiences.”
The Vietnam Experience is a permanent exhibit and is included in the normal museum admission price. It is part of Patriots Point’s ongoing effort to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War over the next few years. Construction of the exhibit was made possible by contributions from Charleston County Council, Bennett Hospitality and the Charleston Harbor Benefactors Society.
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I would like to be on an email list to receive updates on the events.
Thanks
Hi Sarah, We will add your email to the list. Thank you
My Viet Nam memories on the USS Yorktown CVS 10
1967 and 1968.
On Station in V
My Viet Nam memories from my tour on the
USS Yorktown CVS 10, Radioman, 1967 & 68.
On station Viet Nam after leaving North Korea
during the Pueblo Crisis of Jan 1968.
North Korea was bitter cold and I remember Viet Nam
as very hot. What sticks in my memory the most
was the burial at seas, a very very emotional ceremony.
Military funerals are of course always the most poignant,
but one at sea leads the pack. My time on the Yorktown
is deeply etched in my brain.
Mitchel S. Karp
T served on the LADY–1961-1965..COD crew767..after first 2 years I had orders to miramar nas.i did not want to leave the lady and my a/c..while in port the ships capt. Came t Los al. To get his fly time in. He asked where I would like fly and I said San.. Why a navy town after orders like I just rec.? Easy answer– best ship/ crew/ and MY COD. Best thing I ever did. So we flew t SAN and the rest was history..I still think and miss them . Wish the orig cod was back home..
This being my first time to Charleston, SC, I can only say I am not at all sure the efforts being put forward here are at best misguided if not down right hurtful. We went to perform our sworn duty for a country that either didn’t care what transpired over there or worse reviled the brave, patriotic men who blindly believe in Duty, Honor, Country. While there we learned often too late that our only mission was to make sure the trooper to our right and to our left survived the ill-conceived, extra-constitutional War that left over 56,000 dead, 100,000’s more wounded pyhsically and to the soul. For what? Only so many Americans led by the ilk of John Kerry and Hanoi Jane Fonda could inspire countless thousands of fellow Americans to spit on us and call us Baby Killers.
To what end is this exhibit? Will it show the damage done to hundreds of thousands brave American Patriots? Will it show the folly of engaging in foreign Wars without the Constitutionally mandated Declaration of War? Will it serve as a lesson to our elected Representatives to strictly adhere to our Constitution? Will it prompt our Military leaders not to forgo the Principles of Mass taught in every service War College?
c
I don’t think so! Nor do I believe visitation by any actualy combat veteran will be any closer to closure from such a nation changing event. As we continue to send brave American into battle upon foreign soil with no cleat “path to real victory”.
Sorry to rain on your parade but I really don’t see in purpose in this other than to make a few feel good about themselves at the expense of so many of us who still to his day can only take pride in saying we did our duty for a nation that cared to little and way too late.
Greg Adams
196th Light Infantry Bde Re-Inforce
Da Nang
PhuBai/Hue
It fulfills the purpose of allowing me and many others who served in country to show our families what it was like to be there. Its a memory brought back from our youth, an event in our lives that was extremely important to building what we became in life. Some of us became better than we were and some of just became bitter. I understand the bitter part of your attitude, I too feel the hurt still of coming home but, I do not reject my nation or its future because of it. I talked with people everyday while in country and they begged us to stay for their future. We let them down by pulling out but, that was our leaders at that time.
Any thing that can remind us and educate those that come after us that we need a sound foreign policy to live by which helps those less fortunate than we should be applauded.
The vast majority of men and women who served in Vietnam, or supported the war from sea, and remote airfields, performed to the highest standards of any of American military warriors, in any time and place throughout our history. Yes, it is a natural tendency for men in combat to primarily protect the men on their right and left as a condition of reality. It’s what we were taught. It was how we lived. For many, it was how they died. Vietnam was not unlike any other war except for the treatment bestowed upon the returning military personnel by ant-war zealots, and congressional wimps. Recent history reveals that draft-dodgers, deserters, anti-war protesters, and their supporters, often reached the highest apex of elected and appointed offices. Placed there by the American people. So, the hostilities toward the returning Vietnam veteran was not an anomaly, but a popular movement of that time. The abandonment of the Republic of Vietnam was by a majority vote of the US Congress. Under all this betrayal the Vietnam Veteran held high the courage to answer the call of duty, and honor, and loyalty to a time-honored tradition of service to one’s country, and his fellow warriors. The country betrayed the warrior. The warrior did not betray his/her country. Nor did his fellow warriors betray the trust and loyalty of fellow warriors. Nor should they!
Just received the video, I got-ta get out of this place. I lived on that song for many years after my Vietnam experience
with the 3rd BN, 9th Marines in I-Corp. As a young Marine and a 81’s forward observer my experience was harsh and a mental strain, but the survival has had many great attributes for me. As a Silver Star and three purple heart recipient, I must say a lot of the encampment as brought back some enjoyable and some hard times for me. But I am looking forward to coming in the summer of 2019 right after the gathering of our BLT 3/9 unit reunion. Semper Fi.
Two Step the “bamboo killer”…..from Arizona.