The latest addition to the National World War II Museum open to the public Sunday in
New Orleans. The massive Freedom Pavilion is more than
26,000 square feet. It features what museum officials call
the big guns of war including a flying fortress, a B-25 bomber, and other World
War II aircraft.
I'm particularly happy to see the Red Tail P51 hanging from the ceiling of the
Pavilion because it is the plane that I flew in World War II on 68 combat missions
over Germany and enemy held territory in 1945.
The new pavilion stands within a complex of buildings that make up the museum,
which opened in 2000. The museum now occupies more than a full
square block in New Orleans.