Did you know the life expectancy of a pilot in WWI was only 6 months? And a pilot's life was pretty comfortable compared to ground troops. What a devastating war.
To enter the museum, you must cross over a glass bridge. Under the bridge are 9,000 poppies, and each poppy represents 1,000 combatant lives lost, for a total of 9 million combatant deaths.
It is a beautiful sight, but the beauty is diminished by the weight of what it represents.
On the other side of the bridge is a small theater where a movie is shown. The movie explains how the war began.
There is a second video later in the museum that explains how the US got involved in the war.
Between the movies, the artifacts, the docents, and all the written accounts, there is enough information housed in this one museum that you can visit every day for two weeks and still not learn everything.
There are also excellent views from the lookout tower.
I couldn't help thinking of our dear friends who are currently serving a wartime assignment while life goes on as usual for us. Beau is flying over Afghanistan, offering air support to ground troops while Sandra and the boys are stationed in Utah, thousands of miles from family and friends. We pray every single day for comfort and strength for all of them, wisdom and guidance for Sandra as she mothers her boys without Beau, and for Beau's protection as he does what is required of him while at war. What an enormous sacrifice. We are honored and blessed beyond words by their friendship, as our nation - the world, really - is blessed by their service.
1 comment:
Great pictures, Tonya. Makes me want to revisit that place. I've actually only been once, on a field trip with Mr. Hassig in 1989! Such a fascinating piece of history. We're lucky to have the Liberty Memorial in KC.
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