National Veterans Memorial and Museum — Attraction in Columbus

This place was absolutely astonishing. It just opened last October, and my family and friends in Columbus haven't even visited yet. Its so incredible to have a National Museum right here in the midwest. God Bless John Glenn for his vision, dedication and hard work for this project, and God Bless the Wexners for footing half the bill of $40 million. Its not your average museum. I was expecting to see lots of things, rather its a museum of stories. You take a journey through the eyes, voices and experience of so very many vets who sacrificed for our freedom. Our group was only there for an hour and a half, which was a great taste of the experience, but we all agreed its a place we want to come back to and spend a full day. There are videos to watch, letters to read, stories to experience. Plan on taking your time and spending several hours or a day here. The place is still very much developing too. A cafe will soon be open, and another building will be going up. Be sure to visit tye rooftop and look out over the garden walk. I didn't make it down to the actually walk by the outdoor monuments water features, but it was gorgeous from the roof. There is an amazing temporary exhibit right now by military photographer Stacy Pearsall. Wow...she really captures the emotion of our soldiers. The entire place is an emotional experience and such an important place so we can keep educating and telling the stories of our selfless soldiers. God Bless each and every one of them. Because of all of you, I am able to experience the freedom of visiting such a place and just experiencing life much easier than many in the world. Thank you Peggy and Terry, wonderful tour guides. And thank you, Terry, for spending a bit more time with me sharing your own story of service and sacrifice. Every person in Columbus and the Columbus area needs to get to this museum. You have no clue what you have right at...

This is the first national museum for All who have served in the United States Military, and are now called a Veteran. Completed in 2018. It opened its doors to the public. This is a fantastic contribution to all of our Veterans who have ever served. There is also a small scavenger hunt for kids. You go and walk around trying to find key points and images or items that are being told around the center.

There are three levels. As you come in the doors, which you have to walk up a ramp on the East side of the building. As you open the doors, you are greeted with a delightful welcome. You can either pay inside or prepay on the website. All Veterans are free. Kids I believe are $5 and Adults are $10. You are start on the right and walk around until you make a complete circle.

As you end the walk, there is a staircase going down to an area that talks about specific Veterans and tells a little about their story. As you make your way across and around to the right, there is also a little room for any Veteran to tell their story if they wish!

But wait.. there’s more..

As you make your way up the stairs or elevators, you have an opportunity to go to a third deck. Here .. is a special occasion and opportunity to witness the beauty of all the colors. Beautiful stain glass windows and doors of multiple ribbons that Veterans receive while in service to country! You can even go outside on top of the roof and see the great city of Columbus!

Lastly, there is a quiet and meditation garden around the back end of the building. When you go in, ask about it! It really is a neat place for quietness.

Oh.. one more thing.. if you live in the Columbus area, and are interested in “Jujitsu”, this building has a basement as well. Ask about it and come join a team of professionals that will help build many inspirations for a great mind set of self disciple...

I visited the National Veterans Memorial and Museum yesterday [12-29-2018] while admission [there and at five other Columbus locations] had been free in celebration of the 75th anniversary of The Columbus Foundation.

The line to be admitted into this newly-opened museum [on the site where the former-but-now-torn-down "Veterans Memorial" auditorium had been located] had been long; traffic on W. Broad St. had been nearly stopped the entire time that I had been there [because admission had also been free, right across the street, at COSI, Center of Science and Industry].

The lighting and the exhibit design at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum had made for an extremely interesting visit though I must admit that, at times, the lighting level in several of the areas had been too low for me to be able to see very much.

My favorite design element had been the use of large dates [for example, "1941-1945"] near the top of clear plastic display panels and the use of spotlights to create shadows of those large dates [as well as other display elements] on the wall behind the clear display panels.

Another design element that I had particularly liked had been a large blue animated "15 million veterans served in wartime" star that would change its display every few seconds and would attract, in particular, children who would enjoy moving their hands near that changing-every-few-seconds star.

Near the end of my visit, I spoke with one visitor who had pointed out to me that the narrative of the "9/11" events had not been historically accurate; I had not read all of the words in the exhibit because it had been way too...