John Potter
Channel 2 News
There are no more living witnesses to it. The last World War One veteran died just two weeks ago. But Reno gets a rare look, for just one day, at these pieces and players of battle and bloodshed.
Jimmy Bodle goes around the country, city to city, sharing the experience and mementos of a brutal war...some surprisingly civilized. He pointed to a small, shiny metal container. "This little solid brass box here, the Queen of England would send all of her soldiers a box full of candy for Christmas."
But more often than not, people leave this exhibit shaken. Jimmy told us, "We have people come out crying, saying 'I lost my dad in the war, or I lost my brother in the war.'"
In this 18-wheel 'history on wheels,' you get a sense of what trench warfare was like: the sounds of bombs...the closed-in walls. You get a sense of what these guys went through. Visiting history major Don Dallas describes it as "absolute, wanton loss of life."
Don lives for history. He says World War One stands out for the first weapons of mass slaughter...bigger bombs, chemical warfare. As he told us, "The poison gas, the mustard gas. And of course gas masks were very primitive and rudimentary at that time."
Behind glass you see the sheepskin gas mask that provided a fragile barrier against choking death. There's a stretcher for wounded soldiers, black-and-white photographs showing the desolation of shell-blasted battlefields...victims…and an early, cumbersome antique machine gun that weighs 75 pounds.
In all, 66 artifacts from a horrific war, known for trench warfare, cruel inventions...and the death of over 117,000 Americans. Don Dallas takes it all in. "The machine gun, the size of the artillery pieces, that sort of thing was just devastating, just devastating."
It's our turn to see it now. Reno is the 39th stop on a 75-city tour, and its only stop in Nevada. Admission is free for the traveling World War 1 exhibition, and it's here for only one day: Wednesday the 22nd. Doors will be open from 10:00am to 5:00pm at the Nevada Museum of Art on Liberty Street. It's sponsored by the Waddell & Reed financial firm. Donations will also be accepted.
