NEW ORLEANS (December 2, 2009) – "Never forget." Those two words serve as both a remembrance and a call to action for Americans as the na...

In a special event on Thursday, February 28, The National WWII Museum will remember the famed Four Chaplains who gave their life preservers to other soldiers and perished in the freezing North Atlantic 70 years ago after their ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

The public, Museum staff and representatives from all branches of military service will gather at 10:00 a.m. in the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion on Andrew Higgins Drive for day-long observances that include performances by the Marine Corps Band and the Museum’s Victory Belles, a eulogy for a WWII soldier read by a student scholar from New Orleans and a moment of silence in tribute to those killed in action.

The National WWII Museum, in partnership with the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and 89.9 WWNO-FM, will host a special lecture and book signing for noted writer and historian Robert M. Edsel. The author will discuss the dramatic American effort at the end of World War II to save priceless treasures from the Nazis – the subject of an upcoming major motion picture starring George Clooney and Matt Damon.

The public is invited to join award-winning historians and military experts in New Orleans on November 21-23 for the International Conference on WWII and explore the momentous decisions of a year that altered the course of the war that changed the world.