Top Photo: Volunteers Ronnie Abboud (from left), Joyce Dunn, Gaston André, and Al Mipro are pictured outside the Museum’s main entrance at Louisiana Memorial Pavilion. 

Over the past 25 years, The National WWII Museum has been fortunate to have the assistance of hundreds of talented and dedicated volunteers who have donated more than one million service hours in support of our mission. Today, more than 350 volunteers represent the Museum to our visitors and keep things running smoothly as they serve in a variety of roles, from directing guests and leading tours to delivering free presentations in the community and assisting with artifact digitization and restoration.

Four volunteers have served the Museum since the day we opened our doors: Ronnie Abboud, Gaston André, Joyce Dunn, and Sandra Hecker. A fifth, Al Mipro, passed away in January. As is typical of our many volunteers, this special group aims to make every visitor’s experience as meaningful and impactful as possible.

Abboud and Dunn each felt the war’s impact as children growing up in New Orleans and were compelled to volunteer when they heard The National D-Day Museum needed help ahead of its 2000 Grand Opening. Dunn’s husband had taken classes from Museum Founder Stephen Ambrose, PhD, at the Eisenhower Center roundtable at the University of New Orleans, and when he told her that Ambrose said the Museum was looking for volunteers, she decided to sign up.

“A few days before the opening, Dr. Ambrose came and thanked us,” Dunn says. “He said that volunteers would make this Museum a success. I think that’s true.”

A passionate Museum advocate, Abboud is in awe of what the institution has accomplished over the past 25 years. He recalls how, on opening day, veterans of other WWII campaigns—especially those who fought on D-Days the Pacific theater—wanted to know if their experiences would also be represented at the Museum. Such an exhibit was already in the works, and 18 months later, the Museum opened the D-Day Invasions in the Pacific exhibit. (The story told in the original Pacific galleries is now covered in the Road to Tokyo exhibit in Campaigns of Courage: European and Pacific Theaters pavilion.)

“In 25 years, look what we’ve done. It has been incredible to see the evolution of how quickly we have moved from opening as the D-Day Museum to adding the Pacific wing to earning national recognition through an act of Congress declaring us America’s national WWII museum,” Abboud says.

Dunn echoes this sentiment: “I was so thrilled to be able to volunteer because the Museum is a place to honor the men and women who fought and died for our freedom. ... It’s been a wonderful experience. To think that we only had the D-Day exhibit the day we opened, and we had timed tickets, and the line was to the corner. It’s been incredible to see the Museum grow.”

The Museum is honored to have had over 100 WWII veterans as volunteers to share their firsthand stories with visitors. Several were part of the Speakers Bureau, which introduces new audiences to the Museum through brief presentations. As a founding member of the group, Abboud was instrumental in recruiting some of those veterans to join. After his first speaking engagement in January 2001, he realized the impact they could have if those who actually fought in the war shared their experiences. He recruited two WWII veteran volunteers to join: Tom Blakey, who served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne at the D-Day landings in Normandy, and Jack Sullivan, a member of the 100th Infantry Division who was a German prisoner of war.

“These guys were the real deal,” Abboud says. “I am blessed and honored to have spent a substantial portion of my life with them sharing the great American story.”

This article originally appeared in V-Mail, The National WWII Museum's quarterly Charter Member newsletter. Click here to learn more about Museum Membership and how to take advantage of its exclusive benefits.