The somber atmosphere of the National Medal of Honor Museum is tangible before even entering its space.
Visitors step into a glass elevator, smoothly ascending from the sunlit ground floor into the museum’s windowless titanium obelisk, and walk out into the box’s core — a dark, quiet, circular room whose walls glow with the names of over 3,500 award recipients.
The silence of the elevator is broken by the voices of Medal of Honor recipients. Walls soon light up with real combat footage and photos of recipients with U.S. presidents, in uniform and in their personal lives.
Since the museum’s groundbreaking in 2022, passersby have watched the museum’s footprint evolve into the distinct gray box that sits in Arlington’s Entertainment District today. The monument seems to float in the air, supported by five pillars representing the military’s five branches, excluding Space Force which was created after the museum was designed.
On March 25, it will open to the public.
The museum preserves and shares the stories of war heroes, but there’s no rousing music. No patriotic slogans or star-spangled flags hanging around in abundance. The footage of war in the round theater is largely an anomaly, the videos through the rest of the museum focusing primarily on recipient interviews.
The museum’s walls are covered in photos of recipients and display cases with guns, Medals of Honor and letters. Exhibits feature journals, telegrams, knives, handguns, uniforms and trinkets belonging to recipients.
A case next to the exhibit’s entrance houses the first- ever Medal, awarded to Private Jacob Parrott for his actions in the Union Army in the Civil War.
An area dedicated to 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy, the Texas farmboy who was the most decorated soldier of World War II and earned the award at 19 years old for his actions during World War II, greets visitors upon entry into the museum’s main space.
Around the corner from Murphy is the Huey helicopter named “Nancy Lee” that U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady used to rescue wounded soldiers in Vietnam.
The museum doesn’t want to glorify war and battle, said Chris Cassidy, its president and CEO. Its mission is to tell the stories of ordinary men — and one woman — who distinguished themselves in battle with courage and valor.
The museum has exhibits acknowledging the Medal of Honor’s complex legacy, like its section addressing its controversial history with race.
“We wanted this to be not a military history museum, not a war museum, but a museum about the people,” said Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL and retired NASA astronaut.
In the museum’s interactive exhibits, visitors can sit down and speak with virtual versions of recipients or wear virtual reality headsets that put them in a Dustoff mission, a helicopter rescue where they’ll have to work together to make quick decisions under stress.
In the exhibit of rotating interactive videos, visitors can ask the recipients myriad questions about their lives before, during and after war. The recordings go into detail about the actions that earned them the Medal, how they felt after and their thoughts on war.
One room features Jack Jacobs, a retired Army colonel and Vietnam War veteran who earned the Medal of Honor for his actions.
The interactive video version of Jacobs was able to answer several questions about his life from KERA News, even answering a question about whether he witnessed drug use during the war. He said he hadn’t, but alcohol was a problem for some of the troops.
James Sandy, a military historian at the University of Texas at Arlington, hopes the museum prompts visitors to question whether their understanding of military history aligns with the truth of war and combat.
“It is such a complicated, complex endeavor, and it’s so much more than what we call ‘bugles and banners history,’ where it is the battle and the kinetic violence,” Sandy said.
“This is a history of our culture and our country and very complicated, real people, and their relationships with themselves, their country, their military service.”
Before the museum’s grand opening on March 25, it will host a public celebration March 22 at Choctaw Stadium with speeches, activities, live music and fireworks ahead of the grand opening.
Cory Crowley, the museum’s executive vice president of external affairs, said the National Medal of Honor Museum’s purpose is to tell recipients’ life stories, from childhood to their enlistment, to their values and actions on the battlefield and beyond.
“(These recipients) were put in a very difficult situation and did something extraordinary,” Crowley said. “We all have that potential within us to be faced with a difficult circumstance, and on behalf of others, do something that’s bigger than ourselves.”
If you go
The National Medal of Honor Museum’s public celebration on March 22
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Outside Choctaw Stadium, 1000 Ballpark Way, Arlington
Register here for free.
Partners involved include the Texas Rangers, Wounded Warrior Project, UFL Arlington Renegades and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Grand opening on March 25
When: 9:30 a.m.
Where: National Medal of Honor Museum, 1861 AT&T Way, Arlington
James Hartley is an Arlington government accountability reporter for KERA News. Got a tip? Email James at jhartley@kera.org. You can follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.
Drew Shaw is a local government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
