FORT WORTH — What started out as a small project to collect and preserve military history in Fort Worth, is now a full size Museum that is revamped and bigger than ever.
“We originally started out as a small group of people that were just sharing stories about military history that we’d come across,” said its executive director, Tyler Alberts.
Alberts is excited that the Military Museum of Fort Worth has moved into its new location inside of Ridgmar Mall and the 13-year project once known as little Fort Worth Military Museum, is not so little anymore.
"Did I expect to have a 10,000 square foot museum? It was a goal, but I didn’t know it was gonna happen,” he said.
The new 11,000 square foot former retail space is ready to welcome even more war history fans in.
“We cover all the wars of the 20th century,” Alberts said.
Where military history enthusiasts will be able to enjoy life-size recreations of war environments.
"To be on a Vietnam trail when you’re tired and hot or to be in a World War I trench,” said Alberts about the interactive features of the museum.
The museum has endless military artifacts that visitors can spend hours learning about.
“Ammunition cans, everything, everything you can imagine and we’ve got a lot of it on display. It’s something that most museums don’t display. We find it really interesting,” said Alberts.
Some of the collection pieces on display, Alberts and other museum contributors went overseas to pick up or dig for themselves.
"We organize archeological trips to go back to specific battle fields in France and do some research and talk with farmers and get permission to go on their property,” he said.
The opportunity to continue operating the museum in a bigger capacity is an accomplishment Alberts is very proud of, but he said his main goal is to continue honoring veterans of the past and present.
Throughout the museum there are stories about the brave men and women of the United States of America, told through their belongings on display.
"This guy here, Hollingsworth…look how decorated he is, he’s the second most decorated soldier behind Audie Murphy in the United States history,” he said.
Fortunately, the museum has important allies like 21 year old, Rhett Perez, who in pure military fashion folds the museum’s shirts in the gift shop and does whatever he can to help out.
Perez says he wants to make sure the museum succeeds.
“Planning more stuff in the future, I’m really honored that they considered me for the position that I’m in,” said Perez.
The young volunteer hopes more young people like him visit the museum and experience the one-of-a-kind opportunity he said it provides.
"To see these things in person, artifacts, uniforms and things they couldn’t really see up close before,” he said.
The next step is to make it even more interactive for all visitors. As a college student, Perez is learning about the technology he can use to offer personal digital tours through QR codes in the museum.
"Maybe in five years with the good support of the community and the public… we could expand into about a 50,000 square foot facility that would allow us to really get all the jeeps and vehicles on display as well."
The plan is to become a must see tourist attraction of Cowtown.