Military Museum of Fort Worth

WJHMH · Apr 20, 2010

http://cbs11tv.com/video/[email protected]

A project I've been involved with for the past year made the local news today, please click on link & look for Military Museum of Fort Worth.

http://www.otme.us

Thanks,

Will

AnotherDunneDeal · Apr 20, 2010

Cool Will. I will have to come in and take a look. I may even have something to contribute. I have a French Navy uniform that I traded off a French sailor when we made a stop in Ethiopia during the Viet Nam war. Have a few medals but I think I will hold on to them for now. I will see what else I can find in the old seabag stored in the attic. I have a good number of action photos taken at different times over there. May be something interesting.

WJHMH · Apr 21, 2010

Thanks, James. Please do come by & take a look. It's currently a small building but we hope to expand to a larger location due to the collection is growing at a exponential rate. the current display is being rotated, we try to do that every 3 to 6 months. Here's a few photos of my cousin's visit the other day & the Japanese Arisaka rifle he donated to us.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

WJHMH · Jun 21, 2010

This Saturday (June 26) RV Burgin will be at the Fort Worth Military History Museum signing his new book Islands of the Damned, a Marine at War in the Pacific from 1 pm to 3. Here RV is featured in the HBO Miniseries The Pacific.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnHy1e8xOIs&feature=player_embedded

BlackBird007 · Jun 21, 2010

That looks really cool. My moms uncle,who is now deceased,was a veteran of World War II. He was there when they stormed the beaches of Normandy.

I may have a few things to donate,if you are interested in some Japanese military currency,and other wartime coins (even 2 Nazi coins) and paper money.

WJHMH · Jun 21, 2010

Wangans God Hand said: ↑

I may have a few things to donate,if you are interested in some Japanese military currency,and other wartime coins (even 2 Nazi coins) and paper money.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer but you might to keep that for yourself, we have plenty of various war era currencies already on display & in storage. Please feel free to visit if you & your family are in the area.

WJHMH · Jun 27, 2010

What a day, we estimated about 500+ visitors for the book signing in 100+ degree heat. RV has some dedicated fans to put up with the heat, I spoke to a couple that drove all the way from San Antonio just just to meet him.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

WJHMH · Jun 27, 2010

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/25/2294322/wwii-veteran-of-pacific-theater.html#my-headlines-default

Marine who went through hell in the Pacific now gets star treatment

BY STEVE CAMPBELL
[email protected]
FORT WORTH -- R.V. Burgin has all the trappings of a newly minted celebrity and author -- a website, Facebook fans and YouTube videos.
He has crossed the country to visit film sets, sign books and walk the red carpet.
A relative called the star treatment a "chance of a lifetime."
"I said, 'Yeah, and I had to wait 87 years for it,'" Burgin said with a laugh.
Sixty-five years after taking part in brutal battles on New Britain, Peleliu and Okinawa, the slender, ramrod-straight Bronze Star recipient has become a living symbol of the Marines who fought and bled in the Pacific theater during World War II.
The Lancaster resident's combat exploits and wartime love story were key components of the recent 10-part HBO miniseries, The Pacific, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Burgin's unflinching foxhole-level memoir, Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific, was published to coincide with the series.
The former farm boy from Jewett takes his new fame in stride; it's the recognition of the 24/7 combat on Peleliu that he finds most gratifying.
"That's the main thing I wanted to do. You could pull 100 people off the street and ask them about Peleliu, and I bet 95 of them would say they never heard of it," he said while touring the Military Museum of Fort Worth, where he'll sign books today.
"There were 8,000 casualties on that little 2-mile-by-8-mile island," Burgin said. "It was brutal, it was devastating."

Combat recall
The miniseries accurately captured those hellish conditions, he said.
"I was very happy with The Pacific, especially the combat part of it. It is very, very realistic," he said.
Burgin's memoir is just as honest, said Bill Marvel, a retired Dallas Morning News reporter who co-wrote Islands of the Damned.

"Most guys won't talk about the war. That's what made him so interesting," Marvel said. "I was astonished at his recall, and that's what convinced me to do the book. His memory is absolutely clear, and he wasn't going to stand for any twisting of the facts.
"He's totally honest, and he doesn't spare himself," he said.
But it took Burgin 35 years to get ready to talk.

"I tried to forget everything I could, and I did a pretty good job of it," he said.
Shortly after the war, he went to work for the Postal Service and spent 31 years working with three other Marine combat veterans. They never talked about the war, Burgin said.
He began to open up at a First Marine Association reunion in 1985. The former sergeant has been back every year, and each time it's easier to talk about the war, he said.
In 1991, he and four other veterans contributed to the documentary Peleliu 1944: Horror in the Pacific. "That's when I decided that the story should be told, be written and not forgotten."

He won't forget or forgive his Pacific adversaries.
"The Japanese thought it was an honor to die for the emperor. I thought it was an honor to live for Uncle Sam," he said. "They were fanatical. On Peleliu, there were 11,000 Japanese, and we took 19 prisoners. e knew when we went in that we would have to kill every damn one of them. And they knew they were going to get killed, but they were going to take as many of us with them that they could. It was a sad deal," he said.
Burgin, who led an eight-man 60 mm mortar squad, received a Bronze Star for helping silence a machine gun on Okinawa, but his story is more than a warrior's tale, Marvel said.
"It is also a great love story. It's the story of a man in combat who wants to get it over with and go home and start a real life with a wife," he said.
Burgin met his future wife, Florence, in June 1943 while training in Australia. He and a Marine buddy noticed two pretty girls going into an ice cream shop.
"I told him, I'm taking the brunette," Burgin said. "It didn't take long to find out we had a connection. She was 16, and I was 20."
He shipped out for New Britain on Sept. 25, 1943, but the couple corresponded throughout the war. They got engaged but didn't see each other again until Jan. 27, 1947, when she was finally able to get to the United States.
Two days later, they married. They have four children.

'Leave the fiction out'

Burgin's connection to the HBO series is linked to another memoir, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, by Eugene Sledge, one of the Marines in his squad. That book and Robert Leckie's memoir, Helmet for my Pillow, were the basis for The Pacific. Both vets died in 2001.
In 2004, Burgin got a call about the project from Hugh Ambrose, son of late historian Stephen Ambrose, who wrote Band of Brothers, which became an HBO miniseries in 2001.
"I told him to do me and the rest of the Marines a favor and leave the fiction out of it," Burgin said. "He said, 'That's why we are talking to people like you.'"
Burgin is played by Irish actor Robert McCann.
"When they told me a kid from Belfast, Ireland, was going to do my part, I thought, 'Oh, my God, an Irish brogue and a Texas accent -- how's that going to work out?'
"But he had a tutor, and he learned Texan real fast," Burgin said.
He and Florence also met Tom Hanks on the film set and premiere. "We spent a lot of time with him. He's just as good as he seems to be," Burgin said.
"He told me, 'It was an honor to meet you.' He shook my hand and thanked me for serving our country."
Click to expand...

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Greg Scott · Jun 28, 2010

Nice job Will

Don't you if I told you, but my Uncle Bud Scott (still living in Florida) was a belly turrett gunner in B-24s in Europe. He sends me his B-24 Bomb Group newsletters every 3-4 months. One time, he sent me a group of newsletters and there was a small envelope at the bottom of the package. No writing on that envelope. I easily could has missed it and mistakenly thrown it out. What was in the little envelope? His silver uniform "wings" that he wore on every combat mission.

WJHMH · Sep 21, 2010

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Military-History-Museum-of-Fort-Worth/148322448536401

WJHMH · Oct 25, 2010

Military Museum of Fort Worth Veterans Day Celebration. World War II hero and star of the HBO miniseries "The Pacific", R.V. Burgin will be signing his book "Island of the Damned" from 6 PM until 8 PM. 505th Reg. Historian Phil Nordyke will be signing his books "Four Stars of Valor", "All Americans in World War II" and "All American All the Way" from 2 PM to 4 PM. Come see Military Vehicles and celebrate the lives of the men and women who fought for our freedom.

WJHMH · Oct 25, 2010

Opps, I forgot to add this.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

WJHMH · Nov 9, 2010

Thread bump, I'd like to see some of folks stop by if you can.

WJHMH · Nov 10, 2010

We made todays paper.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/09/2619000/military-museum-of-fort-worth.html

Fort Worth's Monticello neighborhood will look like a war zone on Thursday. A submachine gun nest is setting up across from an elementary school. Troops will hunker in a foxhole behind tanks and Jeeps on West Seventh Street. It's all part of the first Veterans Day at a museum with big ideas: the Military Museum of Fort Worth.

Two years after veterans and historians teamed up to open a keepsake collection in a corner shop on Dorothy Lane, curator Tyler Alberts already wants to find a larger home.
"For someplace that has zero budget -- and I mean zero -- we've done pretty well," Alberts said Tuesday, making plans for Veterans Day re-enactments and book signings.
"I put a little sign out front. It was the best $35 I ever spent. We just want people to learn these soldiers' stories."

The museum is near an older Veterans Day event. At 11 a.m., families of World War I veterans will gather in Veterans Park, 4100 Camp Bowie Blvd., to remember the day's original incarnation as Armistice Day. (The regular downtown parade begins at 10 a.m.)
But the newest event is at the museum, which seems less about artifacts and equipment, and more about soldiers. Exhibits not only show gear but also tell local veterans' personal stories. Museum volunteer Jim Barnett, 79, said he's glad for the 20 or so visitors who come each week. "I grew up during World War II and all this was part of my life," said Barnett, a retired accountant. "This isn't just history. It's about the people." Alberts, 39, used to help build sets for musicals. Now he builds exhibits. "Our goal is to pay tribute to the soldiers," he said. "This is for all the local guys."

Current exhibits include wartime letters from former Star-Telegram Publisher Amon G. Carter Jr., uniforms and gear from local soldiers in several wars and a collection of Japanese flags and uniforms. World War II veteran R.V. Burgin of Lancaster, a Marine featured in the HBO series The Pacific, will sign books Thursday. Re-enactors will dig a trench and demonstrate a foxhole. "This isn't some generic exhibit," Alberts said.
"It's about families you know or might know -- the veteran in front of you in the grocery line, or sitting next to you in church." It's about saying thanks on Veterans Day.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Twitter @budkennedy
817-390-7538

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/09/2619000/military-museum-of-fort-worth.html#ixzz14tYQFbVD
Click to expand...

WJHMH · Nov 11, 2010

Be sure to thank a veteran today & if you are in the area please stop the museum.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

WJHMH · Nov 11, 2010

What a long event filled day but it was all worth it, I hope some of you were watching Fox 4 news tonight. We had them at the museum most of the day & they wrapped up their story that was recorded earlier with a live remote broadcast. I'll post most photo link later, I gotta get some rest.

AnotherDunneDeal · Nov 11, 2010

Dang it, I had to work today. I would have loved to come by and been a part. Be sure to thank everyone involved in making this happen from those of us who have not had the opportunity to come by yet. But we still recognize just what they are attempting to preserve. Great job ya'll..............

WJHMH · Nov 12, 2010

I uploaded about 200+ photos covering everything from opening at 7:30am, the parade, setting everything up for the visiting authors, & KDFW FOX 4's 3 visits in a day.

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/wjhmh/Military%20Museum%20of%20Fort%20Worth%20Veterans%20Day%202010/?start=all

WJHMH · Jun 3, 2021

I wanted to give this thread a bump to let everyone know the museum has relocated to Ridgmar Mall, a much larger space (11,000 ft2). I'm no longer on the board of directors but please visit the museum if you are in the area.

https://www.militarymuseumfortworth.org

Here's a few photos from this past Memorial Day weekend.

Thanks.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

Conversations

Alerts

Military Museum of Fort Worth

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

AnotherDunneDeal F1 Veteran

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

BlackBird007 F1 Rookie

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

Greg Scott Karting

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

AnotherDunneDeal F1 Veteran

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

Share This Page

Military Museum of Fort Worth

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

AnotherDunneDeal F1 Veteran

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

BlackBird007 F1 Rookie

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

Greg Scott Karting

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

AnotherDunneDeal F1 Veteran

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

Share This Page

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed

WJHMH Two Time F1 World Champ
Silver Subscribed