Louisiana Air Museums National WW2 Museum - New Orleans

[Kyushuj7w]

Part of the chain of close by museums along the gulf we wanted to visit on this road trip was the National WWII museum. Sometimes I've seen and heard this called the D-day museum. In the downtown portion of New Orleans. As we were there on a Saturday morning it was a bit more crowded vs usual but not bad. Fortunately they have a parking garage across the street. About $10 to park for 5 hours, and the lot is well lit and safe vs others I researched before the trip. The museum is huge with outstanding collections, and exhibits. Imax theaters , interactive items etc. They have restored a PT boat that you can schedule a trip on, but this understandably is expensive at $350 a pop and you need to schedule it. I'm not sure you could do that and the museum in one day but they sell a 2nd day pass for an extra $6. Great place and its expanding exhibits all the time.
Just up the MIssissippi is a WWII destroyer and a small museum with a lot of Claire Chennault memorbilia but both were closed even though their web sites said they were open.
If you have two weeks you can do the gulf coast from Pensacola to Corpus Christie . I have a Texas road trip plan but may hold off until the USS Texas ( closed to the public now ) comes out of dry dock ( if she ever does).

You have to exit and walk across the street to see some other sections but it is all well connected. We got the basic ticket and added the USS Tang experience. So the cost for 2 adults was about $68, by far the most expensive of all the museums to visit on this trip. Discounts for kids seniors and active military, IMO They need more vehicles represented and have a large open air atrium that looks like its under construction to connect all the wings. Perhaps a few of those tanks moved from the closed Aberdeen MD Proving ground museum will find a home here.

 

[Kyushuj7w]

A German anti aircraft tracking device ...basically a big ear. There is so much more I did not post. Road to Berlin, Road to Tokyo, The Home front exhibits.... The A Bomb exhibit has a drum pulled up from a Norwegian fiord that was used for heavy water, the boat was sunk by commandos to keep it from Hitlers program. Lots of things like that. They need some AFV's and some arty to better represent things. Loads of small arms, panzer fausts, letters, etc. But safe to say this is a great place to visit. Part of the Museum visit includes movies and the Tang experience . You get a card with a position number and a crewmans name. You go to your post in the simulated subs conning tower and the action begins. 6 is the helm, main steering wheels. It recreates the Tangs sinking by one of its own torpedoes in sight sound motion and you trying to follow orders. She went down fast in 180 feet of water with the bridge crew being swept off and only one man escaping from the conning deck. 13 men tried to come up once she hit bottom but only 6 were known to make it . One died in the water. The Japanese picked them up and beat the hell out of them. But as the Skipper of the Tang said when they realized they were the burned and injured survivors of the ships they had just sunk they took the beatings with some understanding. The rest of the crew is still inside. When you exit you match your card to see if your man survived . Ours did not. You see them with pics of their wives etc. Its a good exhibit forcing you to think about who they were and those they left behind. This would be a good idea for every museum to have somehing like this. Makes the experience more real to see a face of someone who did not come home that you take with you when you leave. We came in on Friday night after leaving the Alabama and Mobile and hit the close by Battlefield of the war of 1812 that made Andrew Jacksons career. Interesting to visit as its so far below the levee water level. You can also take a paddle wheel steamer to the park from downtown. Docents and people in period costume will explain the events of the battle that happend after the war was actually over.. It took months for information to get places in those days. No graves of the British to be found. I guess they just dumped them in the gator swamps. As I said $30 to park in downtown for I thnk it was 4 hours and there were some very negative comments online about the safety of parking in New Orleans with our out of state plates. We just made sure all items were in the trunk and picked an open air location vs a tower. The city, buildings and waterfront were interesting, but we just missed a few of the walking tours, like the above ground cemetery tours. Staying later to catch the next tour groups meant putting more money in the parking kiosk. As the guy in front of me grumbled to his wife. They should at least give you some lube. I did not get it at first until I saw the price and Ty started laughing. The street bands were actually pretty good but there are a lot of homeless, and I mean real homeless hawking a few strings of beads or reed baskets vs the clean bums holding signs. We were offered a joint by a young lady getting into a car with friends. They did not want her smoking it in the rental. They really need to bring a water truck down the street as any standing puddles start to smell pretty bad. Ty ended up getting sick after dinner, I got sick about 30 minutes later . I suspected the ice in the drinks as we had different meals cooked different ways so its just as well we left and headed to the hotel.

If you score a victory but lose your wingman, you lost the ba

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Great museum. I lived 45 minutes south of NOLA from 2017 to 2019. Visited the museum many times. If I had stayed in the area I was going to see about loaning some of my WW2 military collection to the museum.

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!