This weekend, local residents will have the chance to honor America’s veterans at the Williamsburg Regional Library.
On Aug. 12 and 13, the library will host the Virginia World War I and World War II Commemoration Commission’s Profiles of Honor Mobile Museum.
The exhibit highlights the contributions of Virginians to both wars, and invites visitors to submit their own photographs from the era to be scanned for inclusion in the Virginia Profiles of Honor project, according to a press release.
In addition to the exhibit, the library will offer a variety of WWI and WWII-related programming all throughout the month of August. But many of the events will take place this weekend while the exhibit is in town.
The weekend’s lineup will include several lectures and informal talks on lesser-known topics relating to the wars, including a look at the airplane art of World War I, a history of William & Mary’s response to World War I and a discussion of the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II.
The museum officially opens at 10 a.m. Saturday and will feature a lecture from keynote speakers Tim and Laura Orr, who co-authored a memoir with Norman Jack “Dusty” Kleiss, a now-deceased Navy veteran and dive bomber pilot at the Battle of Midway.
The programming continues throughout the day, with an afternoon performance by the York River Concert Band, which will play popular tunes from both wars.
The library will host another type of performance on Sunday afternoon. At 2 p.m., the dogs of the 221st Military Police Detachment in Fort Eustis will present “the amazing things military dogs can do,” the release stated.
The program will include a real-life demonstration of how the dogs detect explosives and their other special skills.
There is no cost for admission for any events and the museum is handicap accessible. For a full schedule of weekend events, click here.
