“I hated history … until I went to a museum!”

Growing up, I hated history….it always seemed so unimportant and far away from me in time and space….until I went to a museum.  There, the past becomes real.  The stories my Dad told me and that I read about in history books were suddenly transformed into meaning for me personally.  All because I could stand in front of a plane he flew as a young man, or see a diorama of conditions that existed for him in his youth.  I go to military museums wherever I travel, but my three favorites in the US are the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, OH, the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL, and the National Museum of the Marines, Quantico, Virginia.  They’re packed with displays of courage and valor, and every aircraft these esteemed branches of service flew.  The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA, is a really special archive of artifacts and equipment.  But I also enjoy the smaller, more intimate museums that dot the landscape from shore to short.  And at each of these museums, the guides are volunteers who served in the military and will regale you with stories of their exploits.  I urge you to go to every military museum you can find!  You’ll come away with a much better understanding of how we got to where we are now as a country, of what the human spirit can achieve when challenged, and of what you might be able to contribute yourself!

Lynda Kilbourne, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Management & Entrepreneurship Department
Fellow, Cintas Institute for Business Ethics
Williams College of Business
Xavier University
Major, USAF Auxiliary, CAP, 73rd Composite Squadron, NKY