Veterans museum honors all who served

BY AMY SINATRA AYRES

At the National Veterans Memorial and Museum (NVMM) in Columbus, Ohio, you won’t find military tanks outside or a helicopter dangling from the ceiling. Instead, the focus is on telling the compelling stories of those who have served this country through recordings, images and personal artifacts.

“You know you’re in a special place the minute you see it,” says retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Ferriter, president and CEO of the NVMM.

The vision of veteran, astronaut and Ohio Sen. John Glenn, who died in 2016, NVMM opened in October 2018 and drew 69,000 visitors in its first year. Like so many museums, NVMM had to close its doors in March 2020 due to COVID-19. Fortunately, it was quick to embrace virtual field trips and events — and that has helped it greatly expand its audience. It has now reopened on the weekends, with health and safety measures in place.

The already iconic circular building features 14 alcoves with themes that take visitors through a service member’s career, starting with topics such as leaving home and basic training, through combat operations and returning home. The story is narrated by 25 veterans who speak in video clips as you make your way through the facility. “You get to about the oath of office, and that’s when people realize just how unique we are — they really get >

gripped” by the veterans’ stories, Ferriter says.

The other key feature of the museum, he explains, is a history of the U.S. from 1775 to today, integrated with information on how members of the military had an impact on historical events. “It also grabs a lot of museumgoers, to be able to connect the dots of our history and then see how people made a difference,” Ferriter says. “And they’re not all generals; they’re not all presidents. In fact, it’s usually the little guy that we’re talking about.”

Jennifer Ballou, who retired from the Army in 2015 after serving 21 years, during which she was a dental assistant and later developed a resilience program, is also a member of a gold star family. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Edwardo Loredo, was killed while they were both serving in Afghanistan in 2010. Their children were at home in North Carolina while their parents’ deployments overlapped briefly. Ballou, who’s originally from Ohio and now lives in Texas, had the chance to visit the museum and speak there on Memorial Day 2019. “Seeing the museum in person was very overwhelming,” she says. “They just do such a great job of telling people’s stories, which really allows you to be able to connect and just feel something that I’ve never felt in a museum before.”

Ballou says she also felt a strong connection to a part of the museum dedicated to gold star families. “Even people who go to the museum that maybe don’t know what a gold star family is, I think it’s just so important for them to experience that and just understand that we have this group of people that were left behind because their service member sacrificed their life,” she says.

The outdoor memorial includes a grove of elm trees, cascading waterfalls with a reflecting pool and a 325-foot stone wall. Ferriter describes it as “very comforting and austere.” When conditions are safe for gathering, many festivals and events are held at the museum, but this spot is always reserved for quiet reflection.

Ferriter credits his team with pivoting “on a dime” to virtual programs when the pandemic hit, starting with their Rally Points. “In the military, rally point is where you go when your patrol gets hit — you go back to the last safe location,” he explains. NVMM was holding Rally Point events monthly, giving local veterans a place to check in, make sure they have what they need and serve them brunch. About 75 to 100 veterans were attending before they had to move to a virtual platform. Now, those virtual gatherings are drawing 4,000 to 6,000 people from across the country, Ferriter says.

They also offer a regular Veteran Voices virtual event that’s drawn up to 6,000 participants, field trips for students as far away as California and held a virtual 5K on Memorial Day 2020 that included participants from 34 states and three countries. Ballou spoke about resiliency at one of NVMM’s early virtual events.

Even as more people are able to visit in person, virtual and hybrid experiences will continue and expand, says Ferriter. In the meantime, the museum hopes to get back to more group tours, screening festivals and welcoming veterans on honor flights when it’s safe and allowed.

“If you come through the museum, you’ll shed tears, it’ll touch you, but you know, it’ll never be dreary and they’ll never be tears other than pride. There’s no, ‘Let’s feel sorry for ourselves’ side of it,” Ferriter says. “We offer that sense of resiliency and solitude as people come to us.” l

Charles McGee, one of the first Tuskegee Airmen, visits the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.