week 3

    For one of my first assignments this week, I needed to help draft a text panel for our World War I exhibit. The museum has two pieces of trench art from the Great War. The first piece of trench art is an unidentified soldier’s mess kit. The metal mess kit has the locations of the places that the soldier went to during his military service. This includes his training in the United States, as well as his service overseas in Europe. The second piece of trench art is the cartridge of a brass artillery shell. The artillery shell has an engraving of a minaret on it. The artillery shell also has the word, Sarajevo engraved on it. This is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is significant because it is where archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, which would be a main component for the cause of the Great War. My supervisor then wrote sentences on the text panel describing the primary sources. I needed to review the text panel’s grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. After we fixed a grammatical typo and some of the sentence structure of the text panel, we printed out the final copy, and cut it to the correct dimensions. These pieces of trench art will be a great addition to the museum’s Great War display.

    Following this, we watched the Navy Sea Cadets perform the “taking down of colors” at the museum’s flagpole. The “taking down of colors,” often referred to as “lowering the flag,” is the official way of taking down the United States flag and folding it. The museum’s flagpole has a United States flag, as well as a POW MIA (Prisoner of War, Missing in Action) flag. After the “taking down of colors,” two groups of visitors came to the museum. One of the groups consisted of a retired Marine Corps soldier. A member of the museum’s staff could not finish giving the tour to the two groups because he had a meeting to attend, so I had the responsibility of guiding and providing the tour for the remainder of the museum. After the museum’s tour was over, I needed to help gather and take the trash outside of the museum. The museum is located very close to Miami-Dade County Zoo, which contains many animals. The animals from the zoo attract many bugs to the surrounding area, so the museum must properly dispose of any trash with food in order to keep the presence of bugs in the museum to a minimum.

    Another day, I was fortunate enough to provide a tour of the museum to my grandfather. He had been wanting to visit the museum for a while, and he finally got the chance to visit it. All of the pictures of airplanes and different areas brought back memories. I showed him the new display of his flight helmet that I helped the museum set up. He was able to share a little bit about his years in the service with other people in the museum. After we took pictures in front of the display, Colonel Gammon, who is a staff member of the museum, presented my grandfather with a Vietnam commemoration pin. Colonel Gammon then took a picture of us in the Vietnam exhibit.

     In addition, I witnessed the re-enlistment of seaman, A02 Milbourne, United States Navy. His rank is (AO) Aviation Ordnanceman. He is required to work with an aircraft’s ammunition. An Aviation Ordnanceman needs to place guns, ammunition, missiles, and bombs onto helicopters and fighter jets. A02 Milbourne is stationed at the Naval Air Station in Key West. He was re-enlisted by a Chief Warrant Officer. Other US Navy personnel attended the ceremony as well. After the flag was raised, I was required to lead the pledge of allegiance for everyone.

    This concludes my last blog for my internship, and it was a helpful learning experience. I now have more familiarity and knowledge of how to work in a museum. Thank you.