NED SMITH: This is the best part of Texas and Fredericksburg
is probably the best part of the best part of Texas.
Today, Fredericksburg Main Street is nothing but shops.
One thing I like about Fredericksburg is that normally
it's a quiet town, after 5 PM in the afternoon they roll up
the sidewalks on Main Street.
Except on some weekends, it's pretty loud, boisterous.
(gun fire and music)
I'm a veteran of WWII.
The Island Assault reenactment, it has a real value.
We should remember as we watch these reenactments
the sacrifices that have been made so that we may maintain
the freedoms that we have.
(explosions and gun fire)
JEFF HUNT: My name's Jeff Hunt, I'm the curator of collections
and the director of the living history program at the
Admiral Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War.
The Nimitz museum exists to honor the men and women who
served in the pacific theatre of WWII and to teach the lessons
of that period of history to our citizens today so that they
can use those lessons to be better citizens of our country
and of the world.
What you guys are looking at here is a diorama that we built
depicting the Doolittle raid on Japan.
As you know for the first six months of the Pacific War
every place we fought the Japanese, they beat us.
One of the best things about being the curator of collections
is that I get to meet the veterans and their families.
I get to receive their artifacts into our collection,
touch those pieces of history and then turn around
and put on this uniform and educate people
about that history.
And as far as I'm concerned I've got the best job
in the whole world.
Good morning, my name is Jeff Hunt;
I'm director of the living history program here at the
Admiral Nimitz National Museum of The Pacific War.
In World War II every Japanese officer would have carried
one of these things.
This of course is the famous Samurai sword, the weapon of the
ancient Japanese warrior class.
What we're really trying to show people out here is the
brutal reality of infantry combat as it existed
in the Pacific theatre of WWII.
(gunfire)
(applause)
REENACTOR 1: I'm gonna talk to you today about the
Thompson submachine gun.
This is the model 1928A1.
JEFF: We're bringing to life something they've only
seen in movies or documentaries.
We're trying to give them a sense of the power behind a tank
or a flame thrower or even an infantryman's rifle.
REENACTOR 2: This is a B-A-R., Browning Automatic Rifle,
30 caliber.
There are many like it, but this one is mine.
JEFF: We are able to bring into the here-and-now the
physical presence, the smell, the sound of what
infantry combat was like.
We make it something alive, that's why it's called
living history.
REENACTOR 2: ...in this manner here.
I will now demonstrate the firing of the B-A-R.
(gunfire)
(audience clapping)
NED: My name is Ned Smith; I was a senior grade lieutenant
in the naval air transport service.
The naval air transport, their mission was to transport
both personnel and materials to the war zone.
When I graduated from high school, some of my classmates
went directly into the military.
But within a very short period of time we get a report
they're missing in action, lost in action you know,
so that even though we felt indispensable there were
some of us that were not going to come back you know,
to the civilian life that we had left.
(music)
The National Museum of the Pacific War
here in Fredericksburg is really important primarily for the
youth that have heard nothing about WWII
or some get a little bit of history in school
but not to the depth that they should.
Youth should never forget the sacrifices made by those
that have fought both in Europe and in the Pacific theatre.
(explosions and gunfire)
JEFF: Island Assault 1944 is the living history program put on
here five or six weekends out of the year by the living history
detachment of the museum.
(explosions and gunfire)
At an island assault demonstration we basically have
all the weapons on the field that participated
in those last two horrific years of the Pacific War.
(explosions and gunfire)
We want to hit people in the face with the brutal reality
of what infantry combat is.
Infantry combat is about killing and it's about destruction
and it's about being better at those things than your enemy,
because it's only by killing him that you come home.
It's only by killing him that you take islands
and only by taking islands that you won that war.
And we want our visitors to walk away having learned that what
they see in the movies and the video games and the comic books
is not the truth.
(explosions and gunfire)
NED: You look at the age of these young reenactors
and many of them are about the same age of those that were
serving during WWII, and it brings me back to thinking
about the sacrifices made by many of my friends,
giving up their lives so that we can have what we have
and our way of life.
(explosions and gunfire - music)
REENACTOR: Cease fire!
Cease fire!
(audience clapping)
JEFF: Myself and all the volunteers that are part of this
program are out here because they want to honor the veterans
for what they did.
They want to educate the public about what the veterans did so
that people can go off and take that knowledge
and be better citizens.
NED: Great show.
JEFF: Thank you. Appreciate it.
You know that you've done it right when a veteran comes up to
you after one of the shows and sometimes you can tell from the
look in their eye and their handshake that you have done
right by them, that you've told it the way it was, that you've
told the truth, and you have told those men and woman
thank you for what you did for mankind.
(music)