JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association recently launched a Veterans Museum to make sure important information is never lost.
Scott Mythen is the chief operating officer for the Veterans Museum — which is not a traditional museum.
“We’re here in Jacksonville to record veterans’ stories,” Mythen said.
Those veterans’ stories they plan to record will go on the internet to be viewed by all since the museum is virtual.
“That soon will be full of great clips of videos of veterans talking about their adventures. The time they came home, the time they deployed. What it meant for their families and what it meant for them,” Mythen said.
The website for where the videos will go is live, but the videos haven’t been added yet.
RELATED | The Jacksonville Ladies: Making sure no veteran is buried alone
The idea for this came from the relatives of World War II Veteran, Maj William J. Hicklin, Jr.
They found his journal while cleaning out their home after a hurricane flooded it and realized they didn’t know about some of the stories included.
That’s when they knew something had to be done to save stories of veterans.
“One of the goals isn’t just to preserve the stories of veterans. We want the next generation to know about the sacrifices of neighbors and their family members, what it means to serve,” Mythen said.
The family of that veteran—through the William J. Hicklin Jr. Fund—provided a $1-milllion grant to Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association to help launch the museum.
Mythen said even though the museum is virtual, they eventually want people around the city to watch it while out and about.
Mythen said said hopefully one day they can have kiosks in buildings downtown to play the videos that would be seen in the virtual museum. He said they are hoping to speak with as many veterans as possible to include in the museum.
“We hope to get that lucky potential where we have so many stories, we have to find alternate place to store them,” Mythen said.
The Veterans Museum will also help establish a “Museum of Museums” informing the public of the location and purpose of other public and private museums that showcase veterans’ stories and the military.
If you want the story of a veteran in your life to be preserved and in the museum, you can reach out by emailing info@vetsmuseum.org .
If you would like to financially support the collection and preservation of veterans’ stories, contact memberservices@vetsmuseum.org or visit the website at vetsmuseum.org.