Veterans Memorial Museum Branson Missouri RV Travel Destinations

Veterans Memorial Museum

The vision of a rural Nebraska man named Fred Hoppe has created what the Veterans Task Force calls one of the "greatest tributes ever completed to honor our country's veterans" and what we personally felt was one of most moving museums we have ever visited.

The Veterans Memorial Museum in Branson , Missouri is a national tribute to the brave men and women who defended our nation throughout the 20th Century. A visit to the museum is a powerful, emotional experience. While touring the museum’s exhibit halls you will be captivated by the stories of the men and women who gave so much to preserve our freedom and the American way of life.

The Veterans Memorial Museum is a fascinating and humbling tribute to our veterans. The museum is filled with an incredible collection of wartime exhibits covering the heights and depths of human experience. As you gaze at the museum’s huge collection of exhibits you cannot help but reflect on the experiences of the men and women who wore these uniforms, fired these weapons, lived as a prisoner of war, wrote these letters home, were awarded these medals, flew the airplanes, rode the motorcycles, and served our country so well.

A World War II vintage P-51 Mustang fighter sits above the parking lot of the museum, a small sample of what waits inside to educate and awe visitors. The Veterans Memorial Museum is composed of ten great halls covering the wars and conflicts fought during the 20th Century. A tour starts in the World War I Hall, progressing through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and more.

Each hall features dramatic and thought provoking exhibits. Sculptures, murals, historical artifacts, works of art, and thousands of pieces of memorabilia honor all branches of the military service, major battlefronts, and campaigns. The names of the men and women killed in action in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf , and recent conflicts of the 20th Century are displayed on the walls of the halls. For those who lived through these wars the memories brought back are vivid and overwhelming. For those that viewed the 20th Century wars through the prism of history, the museum is awe-inspiring.

American military equipment on display in the museum brings back both fond and bittersweet memories for those who served in uniform. Something as simple as a Vietnamese phrase book issued to American GIs or a display of M-1 carbines can take one back to a faraway place and time. Captured enemy equipment in the museum is accompanied by a sign stating that their display is for historical purposes only, and that artifacts of a repugnant nature, such as a Nazi flag or a uniform worn by a concentration camp prisoner, are displayed as tangible symbols of our triumph over evil.

The World War I hall includes a handsome statue of a doughboy and a deadly looking water cooled machinegun, along with displays of uniforms, gas masks, weapons, and equipment used by American troops and our enemies.

The famed 10^th Mountain Division, which served with great distinction, is honored in the World War II gallery, where weapons from the battlefield and posters from the home front are displayed. The hall also has displays on the Navajo Code Talkers, who befuddled Japanese intelligence; Kilroy, the graffiti character who showed up on battlefields across the nation; and the servicemen awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military award. President George Bush Sr., who served as a combat pilot during World War II, is honored.

The displays cover an amazing range of artifacts, from a 1943 Indian motorcycle painted olive drab and equipped with a scabbard for a rifle, to a Cushman scooter dropped by parachute on D Day, to a stuffed homing pigeon like those that carried messages over battlefields and across enemy lines.

Korea has been called America ’s Forgotten War, but the museum remembers the men and women who served in that bloody conflict with displays that cover everything from a Marine Corps dress uniform to a sniper rifle with a huge telescope.

In the Vietnam War Hall a bronze statue of three grunts on patrol stands guard over a collection of artifacts that include a crude rusted bicycle the Viet Cong used to transport equipment down the Ho Chi Minh trail, a conical straw hat worn by the indigenous people of Vietnam, weapons used by both sides in the conflict, and photographs and posters from the war years.

Every hall has many, many more displays and memories than we have room here to describe. It is something you have to see to appreciate. To see the artwork on display alone is worth more than the price of admission to the museum. Paintings and sculptures portray the many conflicts in which American’s have fought and died to protect our nation from the tyrants of the world. Along with dozens of bronze sculptures, special murals are featured in the museum, including the recent addition of the Tuskegee Airmen painting Red-Tails Strike Again by artist Mike Hagel.

The museum’s founder, Fred Hoppe, is an internationally renowned bronze sculptor. Hoppe did years of research and traveled the world collecting over 2,000 exhibits to be displayed in the 18,000 square foot museum. Many of the exhibits have been compiled with the help of veterans and their families and include these veterans' personal stories. From the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of the Persian Gulf , from the memories of decorated combat veterans to the men and women who served on the home front, every aspect of our nations' fight for freedom has been honored.

The centerpiece of the Veterans Memorial Museum is the world's largest war memorial bronze sculpture, a stunning 70-foot long bronze sculpture consisting of 50 life-size soldiers storming a beach. A combat soldier from each of the 50 states was used as models for the life-size figures. The sculptor’s father, Fred Hoppe Sr., was the model for the lead soldier. The sculpture is surrounded by the names of over 400,000 American servicemen and women killed in action during World War II. This is the only place in the world where all of these names are displayed.

The human cost of war is brought to life in real terms when you stand before the long list of names of Americans killed in action in World War II. They cover over 150 feet of wall space ten feet high. A wall with the names of the twelve million human beings killed in Nazi concentration camps would be over eighteen city blocks long, a distance of one and a half miles. If it were possible to list the estimated 60 million people killed in World War II the list would stretch over seven miles.

Fred Hoppe was inspired by the stories and sacrifices he heard about from his father and the men that fought alongside his father during some of World War II’s bloodiest battles. Fred Hoppe Sr. is honored with a mural and a special exhibit in the museum depicting his heroic rescue of a wounded comrade. Fred Hoppe's vision in creating the museum was enhanced by his desire to perpetuate and honor the memory of the men and women and their descendants who were and are forever and profoundly affected by America’s wars.

Hoppe is a hands-on type of person who cannot be deterred when he sees a job that needs doing. After spending four years trying to raise money for a memorial to honor the veterans of the 20th Century, and with over 36 foundations turning him down, Hoppe says, "It became apparent that I would have to take things into my own hands. The experts kept telling me that it would take six years to complete a project of this magnitude, however with our veterans dying at a rate of over one thousand per day, I was driven to finish this project quickly." He worked eighteen hour days, seven days a week, living up to his pledge to complete the project in just ten months. The museum officially opened on November 11, 2000. Along with designing, funding, and building the Veterans Memorial Museum, Hoppe also collected and then wrote the descriptions for over 2000 rare military artifacts he donated to the museum.

Designing and participating in the construction of the building, Hoppe even cut up 70 tons of logs in a homemade sawmill in his backyard to provide siding and lumber for the museum's 18,000 square feet building. "Along with saving money, this allowed me to personally make sure that every aspect of the building reflected the quality our veterans deserve," said Hoppe.

Hoppe states, "Along with the Veterans Memorial Museum being an artistic memorial to our veterans, we want to evoke from our visitors an emotional response to the far reaching implications of war, and the undeniable courage of those who stood strong in the face of the enemy. Above all, this memorial is a gesture of thanks to all who died to defend the freedoms we enjoy today."

The Veterans Memorial Museum is located at 1250 W. Highway 76 in Branson. The museum is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $13.50 for adults, $10 for veterans, $5 for children ages 6 to 12, and free for children under 5. For more information contact the museum at (417) 336-2300.