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TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2000 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE A-9
56TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY
STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSON
Historian Stephen Ambrose, a founder of the National D-Day Museum, flashes the crowd a victory sign after receiving the Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Defense Secretary William Cohen, left, during a ceremony at the museum Monday. The medal is the highest honor a civilian can receive; Ambrose was honored for his career as a writer and historian chronicling the hardships and lives of American soldiers.
Historian Ambrose is decorated
Museum founder gets medalfor public service
By Paul Purpura
West Bank bureau
For his career as a writer and historian chronicling the hardships and lives of American soldiers, Stephen Ambrose was awarded the highest medal a civilian can get from the Defense Department Monday, accepting it on the eve of what is, perhaps, his most ambitious achievement: the National D-Day Museum.
Ambrose, the museum?s founder, said nothing but raised both hands and flashed the victory sign to a large crowd ? including U.S. and foreign dignitaries, film director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks ? as he accepted the Medal for Distinguished Public Service from Defense Secretary William Cohen.
?When you read something by Stephen, you can be sure of three things,? Cohen said during a brief ceremony in.the museum?s cavernous Louisiana Memorial Pavilion. ?It will be accurate. It will be vividly told. And it will enrich the understanding of times past.
?Walter Lippman once wrote that, ?The American past can be brought alive again only by men who tell the majestic story once more, aware that they are making history, not merely writing history,? ? Cohen said. ?Stephen Am-
brose has no?t merely written majestic history, he has indeed made history.?
Years in the making, the $21 million museum in the Warehouse Dis-trict opens today amid international attention. Monday?s black-tie ceremony attracted such officials,as defense ministers from the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Norway, as well as ambassadors from Canada, Denmark, Prance, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
It also attracted members of Congress, New Orleans officials and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes.
?To get here tonight, this has been our D-Day for two years,? said Nick Mueller, chairman of the D-Day Museum.
Gov. Foster recalled that he was hesitant at first to support the mu-
seum, which was built partially with state money, when Ambrose approached him with the idea years ago.
?I said, Why? Why are we going to build a D-Day museum in New Orleans?? ? Foster said. Ambrose replied that New Orleans was where the Higgins landing craft were built, vessels that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower once said helped make possible Operation Overlord and thus, victory in World War II. So Foster said, ?OK, let?s doit.?
With a replica of a Higgins landing craft to his right, Cohen told the audience something his wife, Janet, said about the thousands of troops who were ferried to the Normandy coast in the vessels.
?What was going on in their hearts?? he said. ?Were they thinking about their wives? Their children? Their parents? That?s the reason we?re really here.?
Cohen also praised Hanks and Spielberg for their work in ?Saving Private Ryan,? the Oscar-winning movie that brought to life the horrors of the D-Day invasion, rri years ago today.
It is Spielberg?s art ?that helped bring all of us face to face with the chaos and confusion of war, forcing us to comprehend the challenge of holding onto some semblance of human dignity when the horror and carnage of war are unleashed,? Cohen said.
Before presenting the medal to Ambrose, Cohen credited the sol-1 diers, sailors, airmen and Marines who fought on D-Day for ensuring that modem Europe ?is largely at peace.?
?This museum, thanks to the dedicated men and women who created it, will ensure that future generations remember the sacrifice of those who serve and the moral necessity to support them still,? Cohen said.