There is a woe-begotten stretch of road on Dale Boulevard as you drive east heading toward Route One. On the right, shortly before the I-95 exits, you can see a lonely McDonald’s and the remnants of what was once a Mexican restaurant next door to a Denny’s. Both folded quite a while ago. If you look between them toward the wood line though, you will also see a gravel road that leads to . . . something. Suppose sometime in the last decade you had pulled over to get a Big Mac or coffee. If you have been in the area long enough, you may have seen a curious sign suggesting something about a future exhibit dedicated to the “Home Front,” evoking historical memories of World War Two and American patriotism. Or more lately it would have promised something even more ambitious in scope and meaning: The future home of a national museum dedicated to the experiences of all Americans in time of war and armed conflict.
The desire to preserve, curate and share this collective national memory inspires the members of the Americans in Wartime Experience (AWE) organization, a 501(c) non-profit led by their CEO Dennis Brant. The AWE, its effort to secure a permanent home, and its associated legal battles have drawn the keen attention of local news in the last few weeks. During a recent interview, Dennis Brant spoke with the Gazette about his work with the AWE organization, their challenges, and why they consider this effort worth doing, despite the obstacles. The interview left no doubt that, for Brant and his team, the goal of creating a permanent home for the Americans in Wartime effort is deeply personal and rooted in strongly held beliefs—and almost the culmination of a life’s work.
“I come from a family of four boys. My father was a 4th Marine Division Marine, who at the age of seventeen ended up on Tinian Island, then later Saipan, and Iwo Jima, okay?”
Dennis paused and reflected on his childhood in D.C.:
“So, he sent us to St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., all-boys military high school back then. And we wore the West Point gray uniforms. So we were initiated early on and loved it.”
His words, plain and honest, evoke a distinctly different time in American life, a time of sacrifice and steadfastness. Many now reading this, older readers, for instance, certainly need little explanation. But many more, born long after, who may not even remember the Cold War or September 11—they do need some perspective on Dennis Brant’s father’s generation and his father’s teenage experience: wading out of a landing craft into chest-high water in the face of enemy fire before you had graduated high school, owned a car, held a job, voted for the first time or kissed a girl. Things like this became the experience of millions of American men, ages 17–25 from 1941–45. For Dennis’ generation, and for many born later, the need to understand and to reckon with those sacrifices, and in the end, to honor them and to carry the shared understanding forward to contemporary Americans—this is the essence of what inspires the Americans in Wartime Experience organization.
We talked a little about Dennis’ earlier life and his business career:
“From there (St. John’s College High School), I went on and played football and baseball at Eastern Kentucky University. Built several businesses, sold businesses, and so forth.”
Not long after, in what may have been a turning point in his life, Dennis Brant would begin to devote his energies to various military and veterans’ foundations:
“I ended up working for the Medal of Honor Foundation in Charleston, South Carolina and helped them significantly to where they just opened a phenomenal museum in Arlington, Texas.”
After his work with the Medal of Honor Foundation, Dennis came into contact around 2017 with Allan Cors, whom the AWE regards as their founder and the inspiration behind the organization:
“Now, Allan Cors is a guy who I just love. If anybody could have a second father in life, it would be Allan Cors. This guy was a vice president of Corning in New York and the minority Congressional legal advisor on Capitol Hill, and he ended up being the president of NRA for three years.”
Allan Cors, who passed away in August of this year, was indeed an influential figure, a well-known attorney in Washington circles, a past NRA president, and a staunch advocate for Second Amendment rights. For several years, Allan hosted a military appreciation day at his “Tank Farm” on land he owned in Nokesville near Aden Road. It gave him an opportunity to share his impressive collection of military weapons and vehicles. Dennis shared Allan’s recollection of his comic predicament:
“His wife told him he had to move all the tanks out of their driveway and get them placed somewhere else. So, he did that, and from there, it’s history. He just started collecting vehicles from Normandy and from all over the world.”
The strength of public enthusiasm for these displays encouraged the AWE and local Prince William County veterans’ groups to support and to solidify a concept of what might be possible—a museum of living history:
“Everything we have is operational, okay? Which is why our tank farm open house was so doggone successful. 20,000 people came out a day, and it was just amazing. We’d give tank rides, we’d bring in helicopters, and we made it a festival. A Military Veteran Day, where they could come out, smile, enjoy themselves, and have a great time, and learn.”
The passion to share this collective American legacy is central to the AWE. On their website, their charter states the following:
“The Americans in Wartime Experience explores the impact of war and conflict on America since WWI. It honors those who served in the military and on the home front and highlights the values they demonstrated in serving – duty, honor, and courage. It examines how periods of conflict have profoundly shaped American society. It educates visitors about the costs of war, both on a personal and social level. It challenges visitors to remember the service and sacrifices made by their fellow citizens to preserve and defend our freedoms.”
It is thoughtfully written, yet the organization’s tribute on Facebook to the late Allan Cors cuts to the heart of the matter:
“As veterans came to the Tank Farm and shared their experiences, Allan came to realize that the vehicles were not the story—the men and women who served were.”
An artist’s rendering of a planned World War I trench exhibit. Illustration courtesy of Americans in Wartime Experience
As we concluded our chat, I asked Dennis to give me a sense of what he thought our readers should know and what he thought lay ahead for the Americans in Wartime effort:
“So, we called it Americans in Wartime Experience because we wanted [visitors] to know about what was going on, the hot, the cold, the wet, the dry, you know, what everybody went through in battle and on the home front.”
Mindful of the now-disputed site near I-95, Dennis elaborated:
“So, five miles south is the Marine Corps Museum. And then if you go 5 to 7 miles further north, you’ve got the new Army Museum. You know, people need to come to DC, and not only just see the monuments in DC, but they need to take in the Military History Trail. They need to see the two beautiful museums, and in between, sandwiched in between, they need to experience the outdoors; the living landscapes, and, you know, just encounter the reenactors and just take in what a trench in World War I and a 1917 tank was, and what was going on and to take in World War II and Vietnam and Korea and the Middle East and the Home Front.”
We carefully broached the question of the AWE’s future with the possibility of an unfavorable legal outcome. Dennis was confident and committed:
“Going forward, we hope to get it resolved in our favor. We hope to build on that site. But if something happens crazily—yes, we have Plan B, C, and D. And this is going forward regardless because it’s needed in America.”
We concluded there and thanked Mr. Brant for his time.
For the Americans in Wartime Experience team, the last chapter on where they will build is still to be written. They remain confident and may yet see the fulfillment of their dream to construct their museum on that lonely piece of ground near I-95.
Of course, we may one day drive down Dale Boulevard and see signs announcing that spot as the future home of Woodbridge’s newest storage container building, self-serve car wash or data center. Time will tell.
Postscript and Reflections
Many who read this are probably already convinced and readily see the positives in the AWE’s mission. So, for them, this article is merely ‘preaching to the choir.’ What about the others? Some readers may ask quite fairly, “Is it needed? Why does it matter whether or not we have one more military museum, when I’m worried about gas reaching $5.00 a gallon or the danger of my job being outsourced overseas or how I can get my children into a school with a good STEM program?”
There are two questions worth pondering here. First, ought we to study war and its consequences, and the ways in which these affect American life? Second, is there some greater value to be derived from going to a museum, especially a kind of “hands-on” one, and seeing something historically authentic or approximate to the real thing, as opposed to seeing it in a book or on a computer?
The second question is easier to answer, while the first is more important. Let’s begin with the simpler of the two.
There are various ways to derive knowledge, but none is more powerful than the experiential: the learning that comes through the engagement of all five senses. Mr. Brant and his team would argue that, if you really want to understand war and what it does to people, you should climb up on a tank and get down inside the claustrophobic, smelly, unpleasant insides under the hatch. Or crawl into a replica of a muddy First World War trench or a GI’s foxhole. Think about standing in that cold mud with your rifle at the ready staring into the dark at two in the morning. Or watch the numerous taped Voices of Freedom interviews that AWE has prepared with countless veterans and civilians in wartime. Listen as they talk about their sacrifices. Their grief. These are ways of learning that no amount of screen time can ever match.
The first question, though, is more important, as it addresses our ability to be effective citizens. A little over a century ago, a very astute French statesman, Georges Clemenceau, observed that “war is too important to be left to the generals.” He recognized that in a democracy it is incumbent upon citizens to understand for themselves the implications of choosing war or peace when faced with a threat. He reasoned that it cannot be merely passed off to an elite in uniform that may confuse the nation’s interests with their own. For a country as forged by war as the United States, as inclined to use its arsenal and as encumbered with global commitments, it is perilous for the man or woman in the street to choose to ignore these questions.
Yet we do ignore them. Research collected by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation / WWII National Citizenship History Survey concluded in 2018 that 60% of overall respondents did not know who the U.S. fought against in World War II. Gaps were most severe among individuals under 45, where only 19% passed a basic citizenship exam format. A 2011 Newsweek Civic Literacy Poll administered the official U.S. citizenship test to a representative population of native-born Americans. The results found that 73% of respondents could not correctly identify why the United States fought the Cold War (the containment of communism). The knowledge deficits heavily skewed toward younger generational cohorts.
The 2011 poll is rather old now, but would any readers care to suggest public knowledge has improved in the intervening years?
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