MOUND, La. — The Southern Heritage Air Foundation reopened its museum Wednesday with an expanded collection that examines not only the history of aviation, but highlights the experiences of local World War II veterans and includes displays of significant events and people from World War II.

The reopening was marked with a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.

“We’ve added a whole new room,” said SHAF president Patty Mekus, adding the room contains a collection of stories and exhibits of different topics.

“We’ve got women of World War II; one of the ladies we’ve got in there worked on the atomic bomb that was successful in ending World War II,” she said. “We have Disney in World War II, the Red Cross, we’ve got Bob Stockweather, one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau (concentration camp), and the photographs he took. We’ve got the Tuskegee Airmen. We’ve added the Navajo code talkers, and we’ve added Bataan.

Mekus said SHAF is working with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on the local veterans’ interviews, and there have been discussions about bringing traveling exhibits to Mound.

She said the national museum’s staff also helps with research to determine the history and story behind items donated to the foundation.

The museum’s new room includes a video outlining the experiences of Glenn D. Frazier, a Bataan Death March survivor who finished the war as a prisoner of war in Japan. Documents in a display case tell the story of the destroyer USS Ward, which fired America’s first shots of World War II, when it sank a Japanese mini-sub at the mouth of Pearl Harbor several hours before the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

Visitors entering the room are greeted by paintings of the two P-51 Mustang fighters with the distinctive red tails of the 332nd Fighter Group, better known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Other exhibit areas in the foundation’s building include items and a video on Vicksburg resident and Marine Corps veteran Jim Westbook and other local veterans, and a room dedicated to former Gov. Kirk Fordice, one of the founders of the foundation and a pilot, who father flew in World War II, and his first wife, Pat Fordice.

The museum also features photographs from Pat Fordice’s anti-litter commercial “I’m not your mama.”

“They’ve done a fantastic piece of research and preservation of all these exhibits and planes,” said George Roberts of Vicksburg, a member of the Mississippi Wing of the Commemorative Air Force and a regular visitor to the museum. “It’s like whole (new) museum.”

Don Brown, also of Vicksburg, said the museum was “real good,” adding he would probably have to come back to see everything. Brown brought Westbook for the reopening.

Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce executive director Jane Flowers said the museum should have an impact on the surrounding area.

“I’ve talked to Patty and she’s told me how many people, including people from other countries, who have stopped by the museum,” she said. “I think it will have a tremendous impact on the area, especially because they (the museum staff) live in Vicksburg. They’re going to tell people about places to eat in Vicksburg, places to shop in Vicksburg, places to stay in Vicksburg, so it’s going to help us a lot.”

“This is a good asset, because a lot of the people can’t get to the World War II Museum, and one of the things they’ve done (at Mound) is include these veterans. I just think it’s great.”

SHAF board member Dan Fordice said the museum is “now officially, is our president’s, Patty Mekus’ museum.”

“She inherited this when she came to work two years ago,” he said. “She inherited what I put together, and she’s been improving on it the last two years, significantly.”

He added Mekus closed the museum for two weeks to complete the museum improvements, “And she’s done a great job.”

Fordice said the decision to include veterans from other services was a response to requests from vets who were interested in seeing the museum’s scope expand.

“I’ve been interviewing World War II pilots for 20 years,” he said. “That, basically, was all I really had, and we’ve had a lot more interest from people other than aviation, and she is really able to cover a lot of history.

“We’re a small museum, and there’s no way we can tell the whole story of World War II. I was always afraid of expanding out too far and doing too much and doing anything. But she’s done a great job.”