Broomfield Veterans Museum Adds New Exhibits, Resumes Coffee and Conversation Series

By Kristen Beckman

Like many organizations, the Broomfield Veterans Museum was forced to adapt its operations when COVID-19 hit earlier this year, including temporarily closing to the public for a couple of months. But the museum’s volunteers put that downtime to good use by working to improve existing exhibits and creating new ones.

One new exhibit that visitors won’t want to miss is a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of World War II, including a wall-length illustrated timeline, period newspapers, and artifacts from the war on display. The second new exhibit is a walk-in replica of a fall-out shelter, that provides a glimpse into what life would have been like if people had been forced to take shelter. The exhibit includes bunk beds, a table set for a meal, bookshelf and books, and a desk with time-appropriate artifacts. Other new items on display are a Norden Bombsight, a Navy signal lamp, and a chunk of Trinitite – which is nuclearblast-fused sand from the Trinity site where the U.S. Army detonated the world’s first atomic bomb.

With new exhibits in place, the museum was happy to welcome visitors back in June.

“The Broomfield Veterans Museum has reopened — with virus precautions of course — and has resumed its community role as a center for veterans and historians to share their experiences, students to learn about our nation's history, individuals or groups to explore the rotating exhibits, and families to honor loved ones who served in the military,” said Jim Groh, the museum’s director of marketing and public relations.

The museum has also recently resumed its popular Coffee and Conversation speaker series, which brings local veterans and others with a military connection to the museum twice a month on Saturdays to share their experiences and knowledge. In response to COVID-19, the museum is now streaming the sessions on its YouTube

page at www.youtube.com/user/broomfieldveterans.

To make up for lost time, the museum presented speakers on consecutive Saturdays in October. Scheduled speakers included Ryan Woolf, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, speaking on the Global War On Terror; Adrian Hovey, a Navy veteran, sharing his experiences as a young navigator on a Navy cruiser; and Tracy Perry, an Air Force veteran and air traffic controller, talking about the investigation into the Wichita State plane crash that killed members of the university’s football team 50 years ago.

Founded in 2003 by six late Broomfield-area World War II veterans, the museum’s mission remains to honor local veterans of all the United States’ conflicts and peacekeeping efforts from the Civil War to the present, in all branches of service, by telling their stories. It does this with nine rooms of exhibits, a team of docents, a military history library of more than 2,500 volumes, and a small auditorium that hosts presentations by veterans and historians. This mission is carried forward by a team of volunteers, many of whom are veterans themselves.

The museum is located at 12 Garden Center on the north of Midway, two blocks east of Hwy. 287. Hours are Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Masks are currently required.

Visit www.broomfieldveterans.org for the most up-to-date information on the museum’s operations and programs.

Veterans Day Ceremony

The traditional Veterans Day ceremony held annually by the Broomfield Veterans Museum each November will look a little different this year thanks to COVID-19. Rather than a gathering at Broomfield High School complete with a band and speakers, this year’s event will be a scaled-back gathering at the museum. At this writing, appropriate ceremonies are being discussed. For the most up-to-date information, visit www.broomfieldveterans.org,

Coffee and Conversation

The next Coffee and Conversation with Ryan Woolf, U.S. Army Veteran, Afghanistan: “How the World War I Armistice Shaped Our Modern World” is planned for Saturday, November 14 at 9:00 a.m.