Forgotten Warriors Museum Shifts to New Quarters

ERMA — Last summer, the Forgotten Warriors Vietnam Museum’s new building at the County Airport complex was little more than a frame and two walls.
Today, the museum has moved out of a donated mobile home and into its new building. Due to fund raising efforts, the museum has heat, wiring, a restroom and additional displays.
Everything in the building was donated, electrical wiring to the floor tile including 35 display cases, said Tom Collins, museum president and founder.
The museum serves as the final resting place for medals, flags, uniforms and artifacts from veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars. Without such a facility, many of the items would end up in yard sales or a trash can upon the death of veterans who owned them, he said.
Some interior work remains such as installation of air conditioning, trim work and paving of the parking lot.
“I have to thank the people of Cape May County,” said Collins. “They just opened their hearts and poured money out of their pockets.”
A member of Boy Scout Troop 73 of West Cape May raised money to install heating in the museum. A second project of the troop will be installation of a walkway to a memorial wall to be constructed outside.
Twenty Cape May County residents lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The museum will build a 40-foot long, five-foot high, black granite monument outside the museum for those men.
The center of the monument will bear the names of the 20 locals. In a dirt berm behind the monument, 20 trees will be planted. A 30-foot tall flagpole will be part of the display.
It will be illuminated at night. Collins said the monument “brings home” those 20 men.
Bricks may be purchased on the walkway as a fund raiser for the monument.
Inside the museum, the last American Flag to leave Vietnam from Ton Son Nuit Air Force Base is draped on a casket donated by Radzieta Funeral Home as a memorial to the 20 local men who lost their lives in Vietnam.
Items find their way to the museum by word of mouth, said Collins. A display case has been started containing casket flags.
“They will be displayed,” he said. “I will never put anything in a closet and hide it.”
Two Congressional Medals of Honor are on display in the museum, one from the Army, and the other from the Air Force. The recipients of both medals are deceased, said Collins.
Since the Civil War, only 3,578 Congressional Medals of Honor have been issued, he said. Most were posthumously presented to families of servicemen, said Collins.
Unlike veterans from other wars, Vietnam vets were forgotten and were even ridiculed when they returned home from that unpopular war.
“Friends would walk away from you,” said Collins.
He said the museum helps change the public’s perception of Vietnam veterans.
The museum is open seven days a week, across the street from Naval Air Station Wildwood.