The National Veterans Memorial and Museum (NVMM) will host its annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony on Monday, May 27, at 10 a.m. ET on the Rooftop. The event is open to all and included with a special $5 admission price on Memorial Day and free, as always, for Veterans and active-duty service members. The event will honor our fallen military members and the families they left behind with a wreath-laying ceremony and keynote address from Patrick J. Murphy, 32nd undersecretary of the U.S. Army and America’s first Iraq War Veteran elected to U.S. Congress. The event will be live streamed nationally on YouTube and Facebook.
“It is with great honor and respect we remember the men and women of our armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms,” said Colonel Bill Butler, U.S. Army (Retired), acting president of the NVMM. “At the NVMM, we tell the stories of all Veterans from all service branches throughout history, however, stories of the brave men and women whose lives were lost in service are among the most revered stories we have the privilege to share. We invite Veterans, patrons and the public to join us in honoring them and their families.”
This year, the NVMM is asking the public to help fill the museum lawn with flags to honor our fallen heroes. For a gift of $20 or more, the NVMM will plant a flag on the lawn and list your service member’s name, service branch and rank on nationalvmm.org in remembrance of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.
Memorial Day weekend also marks the opening of a new exhibition, Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II, exclusively sponsored by the E.L.Wiegand Foundation, and created by the National World War II Museum. Ghost Army explores how a little-known, 1,105-member, top-secret special troop of artists, engineers and soldiers were able to create and deploy the first mobile, tactical deception unit in U.S. Army history. The “Ghost Army,” or officially the U.S. Army 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, was capable of simulating up to two divisions or 30,000 soldiers utilizing inflatable rubber tanks, trucks and planes, false radio messages, sound effects, and more to mislead enemy forces.
Ghost Army, presented at the NVMM by the Central Ohio For Dealers, will be on view from May 25 through August 25 as part of a year-long commitment by the NVMM to tell stories from World War II, in honor of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, Thursday, June 6. On that day, the NVMM will host reenactors, offer special crafts and activities for children, and, at 3 p.m., hold a panel discussion on how aviators cleared the skies for D-Day. All activities are included in a special admission price of $5.
