Monday, March 7, 2005
The museum boasts about 36,000 items from the U.S. wars.
CANFIELD -- The first display from the U.S. war on terror is at the War Vets Museum.
Lew Speece, who owns and founded the museum, said a Mahoning Valley man who served eight years in the U.S. Army, including tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, lent some gear to the museum from the war upon returning home.
"It must weigh 80 to 100 pounds," Speece said. "And that's without the rifles, the metal plate for under the flak jacket, the bullets and water in the canteen."
The uniform and gear, along with a hand-painted emblem from the side of a helicopter that flew during the war, reading "Thunder Chicken" and bearing messages from service personnel, stand in the War on Terror display in the attic of the museum.
The museum has 36,000 items from all of the wars in which the United States has been involved.
Photographs of the World Trade Center bombing and newspapers and magazines detailing the terrorist attacks and the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq line the room.
Uniforms, weapons and other memorabilia from the 1991 war in Iraq, Desert Storm, fill another section of the museum.
All of the items in the museum, from a flag from the Revolutionary War to photographs, have been donated.
"We don't buy anything, and we don't sell anything," Speece said.
Museum expansion
The 79-year-old Berlin Center man is restoring a barn for the museum's next addition. The barn was built in 1810 by the same man who built the house that Speece converted into the museum. The house was built in 1809.
Speece had the barn moved to the museum property this summer. The plan is to restore it and display old tools, a horseshoeing exhibit and other items. Speece already has an ambulance used during the Korean War that he's storing at his home until the barn is ready.
He's adding electric and installing handicapped-accessible restrooms. A plaque on the restroom will dedicate it to William Speece, Speece's great-grandfather, who became disabled while fighting in the Civil War.
His great-grandfather, who used a wheelchair, built a ramp for his wagon and traveled to surrounding farms making shoes for farmers and their families to support his family.
"I'm really proud of him because my dad was so proud of him," Speece said.
A Marine Corps veteran of World War II who has served as commander of American Legion Post 177 for 26 years, Speece set Memorial Day for a dedication of the barn.
"I work on it every day," he said.
The museum started in 1988 and is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.