Fagen Fighters Museum near Granite Falls, Minnesota, opens new window on 'greatest generation'

Dec. 7—GRANITE FALLS

— Hundreds of people — military veterans and high school students among them — remembered Pearl Harbor Day on Thursday by stepping aboard the USS Essex aircraft carrier, where they were surrounded by fighter planes and uniformed sailors and Marines, and what looked like an endless view of the rolling Pacific Ocean.

"It means a lot to me," said Don McPherson, age 101, of Adams, Nebraska, and a World War II ace. He shot down five enemy planes while fighting in the Pacific Theater of Operations 82 years ago.

McPherson was speaking about what it meant to be a guest of honor aboard this recreation of the deck of the USS Essex at the

Fagen Fighters World War II Museum

south of Granite Falls. The Essex and its fighter planes and exhibits are part of the newly opened, fourth hanger for the museum. Telling the history of World War II and saluting those who served in it is the mission of the Fagen Fighters Museum.

Museum founders Ron and Diane Fagen remembered Pearl Harbor Day by inviting students from the Yellow Medicine East High School and the public to help open this new hangar. "We hope we learn a lesson," said Ron Fagen of the history that World War II can tell us. "We hope something like that does not happen again."

The new hangar's exhibits are focused on the Navy's role in World War II. Its interior is designed to resemble the deck of the USS Essex, an aircraft carrier that played a major role in U.S. operations in the Pacific. Inside the hangar are three fighter planes — an FM-2 Grumman Wildcat, a Curtiss-Wright SB2C-5 Helldiver, and a Grumman F6F Hellcat.

"Real McCoys," said Ron Fagen, explaining that the crafts were 80-year-old planes that have been meticulously restored and are fully operational.

Outside the hangar doors stood a fourth fighter plane, a F4U Corsair, one of America's mainstays in aerial operations in the Pacific. It too is fully operational. It's on loan to the museum from the Jerry Beck family of Fargo, North Dakota.

Inside the hangar, an entire wall is covered by a 74 1/2 -foot by 21-foot video screen that is the largest fine-pitch, direct view LED display in Minnesota. Built by Advanced Ministry Technology of Willmar, Minnesota, its palette of 38 million pixels offers a very vivid, and seemingly real, running image of the Pacific Ocean as would be seen from the deck.

It's also a tool for telling history. Students and guests watched as the screen came to life with then-President Franklin Roosevelt giving his famous speech as America declared war on Japan. It was followed by black and white images of the destruction at Pearl Harbor.

McPherson was not at Pearl Harbor at the time of the surprise attack, but he was stationed there and saw the destruction before setting sail aboard the Essex. He flew a Grumman F6F Hellcat in aerial missions against the Japanese. "Especially at first," he said in response to a reporter's question as to the anxiety he must have felt when launching from the aircraft carrier and into combat.

Bob Brix, 99, of Clara City, knew his share of that anxiety too as a veteran of the Pacific Theater of World War II. A guest for the Pearl Harbor Day remembrance, Brix spoke about helping the wounded on the beaches of Iwo Jima while serving with the U.S. Marines.

He was among the Marines preparing to be part of the spearhead of the invasion of Japan when the war ended. Before he returned home, he saw the destruction that an atomic bomb inflicted on Nagasaki. Amidst the rubble, he said he witnessed people selling their possessions for food to survive.

Diane Fagen said she and her husband especially want the museum to serve as an opportunity for young people to learn about World War II. The museum offers a means to learn about the war in a way that classroom curriculum does not, she explained. "You can't drill down."

Most importantly, she pointed out that the "window is closing." The country is losing the last of its living World War II veterans and the opportunity to hear their firsthand accounts.

Max Harsha is not a World War II veteran, but feels the importance of telling this history was worth his making a trip from San Diego, California, to the Minnesota museum. He was among 11 volunteer re-enactors who wore Marine and Navy uniforms of World War II to participate in the remembrance.

Harsha said that he has found that wearing the uniform as a re-enactor is a very effective way to "open the conversation" about history. He is a helicopter pilot in real life.

Visiting at his side was Katie Barron, a lawyer in St. Paul who dressed as a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) line officer for the remembrance. Her goal: To tell the often underrepresented story of the role that women played in the war effort.

The Fagen Fighters Museum has been telling the story of the greatest generation since its opening in 2012. Ron Fagen's father was among those who stormed the beaches of Normandy, and the memory of his service helped inspire the creation of this museum.

There is no accurate count of how many people visit the museum each year, but it's in the thousands. It was named one of the top three attractions in Minnesota in 2016 by Explore Minnesota. Every year since its opening, it continues to host more visitors, said Diane Fagen.