Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Today is the birthday of the Marine Corps. Do some hoo-hahs and push-ups for them.
It's no secret that we owe our veterans a lot. My generation really didn't have to fight in a war. We were lucky. Today, there are plenty of vets walking among us who saw action in the Middle East, Viet Nam and to a lesser extent, Korea. We lose 600-800 WW2 vets every day and soon they will be gone. There are no vets of WW1 left. Veterans Day should be about more than just mattress sales.
I am on the Board of Trustees of the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. We are a national board. It's a great group of people that are fun to be around. One of my fellow trustees is Mike Bylen, a businessman out of Detroit.
The museum is doing a lot of great things to help people learn and remember the sacrifice of the "Greatest Generation". They are also doing a lot of things to help educate our current generation on things like Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The museum has several events each year that bring children to the museum with competitions on solar power and robotics.
The museum has attracted millions of visitors from all over the world. It has been a bright spot in the New Orleans economy, especially since Hurricane Katrina. It's the #15 museum in the world on Trip Advisor, and #3 in the United States. You can follow the museum on You Tube, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter. It's possible to get a good idea what the museum is like online, but it doesn't beat going there. Don't take my word for it, listen to actor Tom Hanks.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vey3tma3oxU autoplay:0]
One of the things the museum is engaged with is restoring PT-305. It saw combat in the Mediterranean. If you know much about the history of President John F. Kennedy, you know that he was the skipper of PT 109. PT boats were small, fast and carried a lot of firepower. They were made out of wood!
The museum has spent the last several years restoring the boat to its original condition. Here is a link to a video explaining it. We have had hundreds of volunteers work weekly to get it ship shape. It's almost sea worthy. They need to move it from the Kushner Restoration Pavilion to Lake Ponchartrain. The boat will go through sea trials. Once it completes those trials successfully, there are a few options the museum is discussing. I'd love to see them sail it around the country and let people ride on it.
It costs money to move a large boat to the Lake. Mike and I had an idea.
Here is what we'd like to do. If you go to Public Good and back this project, please leave a comment below letting me know how much you funded. We will go to Public Good and match whatever you backed. If you do $5, We will do $5. If you do $10, we will do $10. And so on and so on. We will match to $20,000. Once the project crosses its $20k goal, you can continue to back it. I know the museum would love to raise more than the $20k goal. Please share this with your friends.
In 1941, we faced down danger together. Most Americans know someone in their family that was affected by the war. Our world would have been a very different place if it wasn't for the sacrifice of thousands of young men, and also the sacrifice of the people they left behind at home. I hope you can celebrate what they did by donating a little money to this project.
