week 3

    One of my assignments was to represent the Miami-Dade Military Museum at the Vet Center. The Vet Center was holding a Vietnam Commemoration ceremony for retired Vietnam Veterans. I took my grandfather to the commemoration, and he enjoyed talking to the other veterans. Something that I learned while at the commemoration, was the involvement of Vietnam Veterans in welcoming troops back home. Many Vietnam soldiers were not welcomed when they came back to the United States, so to honor future generations that serve, veterans go to public airports and welcome returning service members. One of the veterans at the commemoration is a member of an organization that helps veterans learn about agriculture and start their own farms. There are other organizations such as, Vietnam Vets, that help veterans.

The Military Museum had members from the VA hospital take a tour of the museum. One of the visitors who was in the Army Airborne wanted his picture taken in front of our fallen memorial wall, so I helped him take pictures. The museum has a commemoration wall of every service member that died in action from Miami-Dade County. The Army Airborne veteran was able to locate the name of his friend on the wall, and he enjoyed the museum. After their tour, we recognized retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Juan Duenas, who is an employee of the museum. He often gives military history presentations at local schools in Miami, and he recently gave a presentation on the Tuskegee Airmen, who were a unit of African American military pilots during World War II. The museum also has a display on the Tuskegee Airmen.

I also needed to locate and print out an (NARA) SF 180 form. The National Archives Standard Form is a form that is used to record Military Personnel Service Records. A standard form for military personnel is entitled a DD214 form. The DD214 is issued for certification of military discharge from Active Duty. I needed to print the NARA SF 180 form for two individuals that were donating items to the museum. One of the individuals wanted to donate a family member’s uniform, jacket, and military identification tags from WW2. Military identification tags are commonly referred to as dog tags. It is interesting to note that the dog tags had the word, “Hebrew,” on it in order to note that the individual was Jewish. I learned that during the Second World War, many Jewish soldiers would discard their dog tags, in order to hide their Jewish identity from the Germans. This donation will provide important information for our World War II exhibit. The second individual that wanted to donate an item was the son of a veteran that served in Iowa Jima. His father did not pass on much information to his son about his service, and he would like more information about his father’s military career. In addition, we had a meeting with a director of the Museum-Institute of War Studies for Naval military history in Cuba. The director knows a lot of information about Cuba’s involvement during WW2 and would like to help the museum with our display on Cuba’s assistance of sinking German U-boats during WW2. I had previously learned at the museum, that the pilot of the Enola Gay, went to high school in Miami, Florida. In addition, prior to their mission to Hiroshima, the crew practiced flying over the island of Cuba. The museum wants to add information about Cubans involvement during WW2 because it relates to many of the people that live in the area. 

Paul Tibbets, pilot of Enola Gay

                                                          The museum's tent for Fleet Week