ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060034
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
The teal blue section traces the 29th Infantry Division through the Colonial period. The violet section covers the division's training, and the blue one its day-to-day existence.
The largest section - red - focuses on the Bedford- and Roanoke-based 116th Regiment's pivotal involvement in the Allied invasion of Western Europe on D-Day. A counterpoint perspective of activities in France during that same 24-hour period also is in red.
The colors dividing the Roanoke Valley History Museum's new ``29 - Let's Go'' exhibit into sections certainly are attractive. But their real intent is to help make the exhibit visitor-friendly. World War II-era cartoons by Bill Mauldin help toward that end.
``It's such an important story, especially for people in these parts, that we'd like to make it as accessible as possible,'' museum executive director Rich Loveland said of the display chronicling the U.S. Army 29th Division's involvement in World War II.
The exhibit opens Thursday.
The Roanoke Valley had a special stake in D-Day, suffering the heaviest casualties of the entire war when the locally-based regiment spearheaded the landing at Normandy, Loveland explained. Twenty men from Roanoke and 23 from Bedford died when the 116th Infantry led the attack at Omaha Beach in France. The 29th and the 1st Divisions suffered a total of 2,500 casualties that day.
That day - the exhibit's focal point - is dramatically recreated in a hypothetical scale model of the troops' activities at Omaha Beach at 6:35 that morning 51 years ago. Loveland estimated that local members of the International Plastic Modelers Association poured more than two thousand volunteer hours into creating the 4-foot by 8-foot diorama, complete with strobe-generated simulated gunfire.
Articles central to a soldier's life - weapons, mess kits, K-Rations and such - are shown within the various sections and help give a sense of the equipment and technologies with which the troops functioned. Items and effects donated by local veterans, such as bibles, playing cards, musical instruments or a form letter from former President Eisenhower help to personalize the overall display.
The exhibit, anticipated to run through August 1997, will expand further in mid-January after the Fantasyland Christmas display - in past years held at the soon-to-close Heironomous Department Store but this year occupying the museum - is dismantled. The sections going into that space will depict the war's effects on the Roanoke home front and include information about rationing and victory gardens, civil defense, the Red Cross, black outs and industrial growth. A hands-on, interactive program for school children also will be set up.
Thursday's opening will include the burial of a 100-year time capsule at Lee Plaza at 2 p.m. and a ribbon cutting at the museum at 3 p.m. Both events will be free and open to the public. Museum admission also will be free on Thursday afternoon.
On subsequent days, admission to the exhibit will cost $2 for adults, $1 for children. For hours and other information, call 342-5770.
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