{"id":3090,"date":"2019-03-18T15:34:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T19:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aviationheritagearea.org\/?p=3027"},"modified":"2019-03-18T15:34:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T19:34:59","slug":"learn-about-d-day-anniversary-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/learn-about-d-day-anniversary-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn about D-Day anniversary events"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated March 19, 2019.<\/em>
\nThe 75th anniversary of D-Day is to be the focus of several special events in the National Aviation Heritage Area<\/a>.
\nThe National Museum of the U. S. Air Force<\/a>, the Air Force Museum Foundation<\/a>, Grimes Field Municipal Airport<\/a> in Urbana and the WACO Air Museum<\/a>\u00a0in Troy are planning special programs and activities to commemorate D-Day in May and June.
\nD-Day was World War II shorthand<\/a> for the start of Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, when more than 150,000 American, British and Canadian forces stormed five beaches of Normandy, France. It was the biggest amphibious assault in history, and it marked the beginning of the liberation of France from Nazi Germany.
\nAt 10 a.m. Monday, May 13\u2014weather permitting\u2014the Douglas C-53D Skytrooper<\/i> \u201cD-Day Doll<\/a>,\u201d a restored transport airplane that took part in the invasion, will drop a group of paratroop re-enactors over the National Museum. The public is invited to watch the drop and talk to the paratroopers afterward, according to the museum<\/a>.
\nA variant of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain<\/a> and DC-3 Dakota, \u201cD-Day Doll\u201d is operated by the Commemorative Air Force\u2019s Inland Empire Wing<\/a>. The re-enactors are with the Airborne Heritage Platoon based in Austin, Texas.
\nAt noon, the paratroopers will introduce the film \u201cD-Day Normandy 1944\u201d in the Air Force Museum Theatre. That same day at 9 a.m., the museum and the museum foundation will open a new interactive, augmented reality experience titled \u201cD-Day: Freedom from Above.\u201d This 3,500 square foot exhibit will focus on the D-Day missions of the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French town to be liberated.
\nIt will utilize tablets running \u201cHistoPad<\/a> augmented reality technology designed by the French company Histovery<\/a>. Tablets using the HistoPad technology will be available to rent for $5 through the Air Force Museum Foundation<\/a>. The special exhibit will run through the end of the year. Watch this video<\/a> for a preview.
\nThe day\u2019s capstone event will be the U. S. premiere of the film \u201cSecret Spitfires\u201d in partnership with the Royal Air Force Museum and the RAF Museum\u2019s American Foundation. It will be one of the Air Force Museum Theatre\u2019s Living History presentations, featuring Filmmaker Ethem Cetintas. Admission is $12 ($10 for Friends members.)
\nOn Thursday, June 6, the museum will commemorate the anniversary with a wreath laying ceremony at 10 a.m. in the museum\u2019s Memorial Park. The event will include a C-17 transport plane flyover, and re-enactors will perform impressions of 101st Airborne Division paratroopers.
\nAlso on June 6, the Air Force Museum Theatre will again screen \u201cD-Day Normandy 1944\u201d at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., and host a Living History Presentation and film at 6:30 p.m. Theatre ticket information is available at: \/movietimes<\/a>.
\nAt Grimes Field Airport, \u201cD-Day Doll\u201d will be available for rides on Sunday and Monday, May 12-13, from noon to 2 p.m.. Go here<\/a> to register for a flight. The airport is located at 1636 N Main St., Urbana.
\nOn June 6, the WACO Air Museum will screen \u201cSilent Wings,\u201da film about the WACO-built CG-4A gliders flown in the D-Day invasion, at 10 a.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. in the WACO Learning Center. The screening is free and open to the public.
\nThe WACO museum will extend its open hours on June 6 to 6:30 p.m. and will highlight its glider display. Admission will be free for all veterans, active military with an ID, and former WACO employees for this special event. Admission for others is $6 per adult and $3 per student. The\u00a0WACO Air Museum is located at 1865 South County Road 25A, Troy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated March 19, 2019. The 75th anniversary of D-Day is to be the focus of several special events in the National Aviation Heritage Area. The National Museum of the U. S. Air Force, the Air Force Museum Foundation, Grimes Field Municipal Airport in Urbana and the WACO Air Museum\u00a0in Troy are planning special programs and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,87,73,1],"tags":[758,77,759,760,761,762,763,764,765,88],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitnaha.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}