The National WWII Museum's newest special exhibit, SOLDIER | ARTIST: Trench Art in World War II, takes an in-depth look at a military pastime known as "trench art": the creation of art, souvenirs, and tools out of discarded materials and the waste of war. Just as evaluating any other art form can reveal the life experience of its creator, the artifacts featured in this exhibit offer visitors a unique way to connect to the WWII veterans who made them—whether they did so out of boredom or necessity.

Dabney Montgomery, 1051st Quartermaster Service Group Aviation Company of the 96th Air Service Group attached to the 332d Fighter Group, served in southern Italy as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen.

B-17 pilot John Noack describes the bravery of his top turret gunner and flight engineer, Kenneth Fox, who even after being severely wounded during the mission to Schweinfurt on October 14, 1943, refused to abandon his post in the plane’s top turret.

Donald Bryan talks about the P-51D Mustang he flew in combat and how it compared to the German Me 262 jet fighter aircraft.

Frank Buschmeier discusses his capture and subsequent imprisonment after his B-17 was shot down during a mission to Merseberg, Germany in July 1944.

At the end of the war, more than 12,000 American POWs were scattered in camps across the Pacific in desperate shape. From August 30-September 20, 1945, in Operation Swift Mercy, B-17s and B-29s flew 1,000 missions and dropped 4,500 tons of supplies to American troops no longer prisoner, but still trapped.

Florence Reynolds describes a negative encounter she had with an Army Air Forces maintenance officer when she questioned the condition of an aircraft she was ordered to fly.

Herbert Heilbrun describes the Christmas 1944 mission he took part in to bomb the oil refineries at Brux, Czechoslovakia and how well defended the area was.

Charles McGee discusses flying bomber escort for 15th Air Force heavy bombardment groups and downing a German Focke Wulf Fw 190 during one of those missions.

Maynard David talks about a particularly harrowing mission he and his crew flew to Tokyo, Japan in May 1945.

Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, navigator on the Enola Gay, describes arriving at Wendover Field, Utah and figuring out that he would be taking part in a mission to drop an atomic bomb.

Joseph Armanini discusses the August 1943 Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission during which the 100th Bomb Group suffered terrible losses to German fighter aircraft.