Online museum available at kiosks throughout Florida
The vision for Jacksonville’s virtual Veterans Museum is quickly becoming a reality as the organization has collected over 120 interviews with veterans and placed 20 electronic kiosks to share those stories across Florida.
Officially launched on the 2024 anniversary of D-Day, the Veterans Museum was an idea born from a chance discovery after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Family members were cleaning the flooded home of World War II U.S. Air Force Veteran Maj. William J. Hicklin, Jr. and his wife Mignonette “Mig” Hicklin, and they discovered a military journal that they had never seen before. The journal included personal passages and four photographs taken on D-Day of the 101st Airborne gliders preparing for the second wave to take off from Aldermaston Airfield in England. Discovered with the journal was a Bronze Star, which is the fourth highest military honor that can be earned through performing heroically and/or meritoriously.
The discovery led the family to create a 30-minute documentary titled “One Man’s War” and sparked an interest in seeking out more stories of military service. After Mig Hicklin’s passing in 2021, with the support of her estate, the creation of the Veterans Museum began with the leadership of her son-in-law William Harrell.
“The challenge, when you ask any veteran what they did, the answer is, ‘Nothing, I didn’t do anything special,’” said Harrell. “Then we ask them, ‘Okay, you have grandchildren or nephews or nieces, if they ask you what you did in your military service, what would your answer be?’ After a long pause, they usually say, ‘Well, there are probably a couple stories I could tell them.’”
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Mose Floyd was impressed with the process of telling his story to the Veterans Museum staff. One of his stories is titled “We Leave No One Behind.”
“(Veterans Museum CEO Scott Mythen) was an absolute pro. I had to have been one of his longer interviews, but we just sat and talked, but Scott allowed me to do most of the talking. I never realized that I had so much to talk about,” said Floyd.
After a 27-year career in the U.S. Navy, Mythen was hired as the CEO of the museum, charged with overseeing the entire process. He is pleased with its progress but is looking forward to continuing its mission.
“We give veterans a copy of their interview, a transcript and overview notes that give them chapters of their story. Then we send that on to the Library of Congress and that’s where everybody else stops,” said Mythen. “Where we keep going is that we want to take these three minutes from an hour and half interview and share that with you because it’s an impactful, amazing story of service that we want to honor and recognize.”
The museum shares its service stories with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. The Project “collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service.”
To share a story or donate to the museum go to: vetsmuseum.org.
