The Veterans Museum Broomfield has just installed a new temporary exhibit commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and 150th anniversary of Colorado becoming a state.

            “Due to the lack of artifacts from that period,” said Flint Whitlock, museum director of Displays and Exhibits, “this is primarily an educational poster exhibit that describes how our nation was founded, as well as about Colorado being added to the Union.”

Also included is the history of the construction of the Colorado State Capitol, the history of the three different designs of the state flag, the biographies of three of Colorado’s most prominent governors, and the history of Broomfield.

            “One part of the display that I’m sure will be of interest is a collection of over 500 exquisitely hand-painted miniature (25mm) Revolutionary War soldiers loaned to us by war-gamer John Carter. These colorful, highly detailed figures represent virtually every army that took part in the war—the British, French, Spanish, German, Native American, and of course the Colonialists,” Whitlock said.

            Also recently installed in the museum ART-illery gallery is an exhibit featuring the drawings and paintings of ten prominent World War II artists. Another new exhibit discusses President Truman’s 1948 Executive Order 9981 that desegregated the armed forces.

            The 250th/150th exhibit will remain on display until the middle of the year.

The Veterans Museum Broomfield is located at 12 Garden Center, on Midway Boulevard about a quarter-mile east of Wadsworth, and is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 2 and Saturdays from 9 to 3. Admission is free. For more information, call the museum at (303) 460-6801.

 

Come to the March 14 Coffee and Conversation at 10am featuring Chris Hedenskog! Hedenskog was the lead M1A1 Abrams tank driver at the battle of 73 Easting during Operation Desert Storm/Sabre. He’ll share his experience during the First Gulf War and talk about his current work at the Veterans Administration.

At 10am on Feb. 28, Don Cygan, who is a Army veteran, will give an overview of the highly-successful Operation Desert Storm (“First Gulf War”) which liberated Kuwait in 1991. This Coffee & Conversation talk coincides with the 35th anniversary of the Desert Storm operation.

On Feb. 14 at 10am, Bob Bird, who worked with the famous “Skunk works”, will present the development of stealth aircraft leading up to the design of Lockheed’s F-117 “Nighthawk.”

On January 24 at 10am, Veterans Museum volunteer and former President Mike Fellows will give a presentation on his father’s service on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gwin during the war in the Pacific. The USS Gwin was awarded five battle stars and saw extensive combat in the Solomon Islands during World War II.

This coming January 10 at 10am, Bruce Kirschner will discuss his father’s service as a Mess Sergeant in the U.S. Army’s Fourth Infantry (Ivy) Division, the first Allied unit to land on the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. Arthur Kirschner went into the Army nearly a year before Pearl Harbor and served until the war’s end in Europe. His participation included the Ivy Division’s liberation of Paris, the Hurtgen Forest campaign, and the Battle of the Bulge.

The much-loved program Coffee & Conversation is coming back strong in 2026. Happening on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 10am in the Museum’s Presentation room, these programs are a chance to hear first-hand stories from veterans, family members of veterans, authors, and scholars about all manner of topics pertaining to war, the US military, and veterans. Please check out the page https://broomfieldveterans.org/coffeeandconversation/ to see the full listing of all C & C programs from January through March 2026.

The Veterans Museum will be closed to the public for the holidays between Dec. 24 – January 2, reopening on January 3, 2026. Note also that the Museum is closing on Dec. 20 at noon for a volunteer appreciation event. We hope you have a blessed end to 2025 and we will look forward to an amazing 2026. See you in the New Year!

On December 13 at 10am Flint Whitlock will give a presentation on the war crimes trials of the defeated Nazi leaders at Nuremberg, Germany, (November 1945 – October 1946). His talk will correspond with the recent release of the movie Nuremberg, by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Coming up on November 22 at 10am—– Jim Groh is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He has been a long-time volunteer and former board member at the museum. He will give a talk on the tragic sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis. The cruiser carried the atomic bomb to Tinian Island and was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945 with a tremendous loss of life.