Preserving U.S. Military Heritage World War II to the Cold War

June 4 - June 6, 2019
Fredericksburg, TX

The National Center for Preservation and Training (NCPTT) and the National Museum of the Pacific War held a three-day symposium, June 4-6, 2019, in Fredericksburg, Texas, discussing the preservation of United States military heritage from World War II to the Cold War.

Millions fought for the freedom of our country and for human rights around the world during World War II and the Cold War that followed. Like no American war fought before or since, the entire industrial, economic, and scientific capabilities of the United States were employed in winning World War II. The sites, structures, machines, tools, and objects, and more resulting from time help us to remember the people, places, and cultures that endured.

The symposium brought together conservators, architects, engineers, landscape architects, museum and site managers, and other cultural resource professionals to discuss state-of-the-science efforts to document, conserve, treat and adaptively reuse sites and features from our military heritage from 1939 to 1991, such as:

• Military bases and training facilities

• War machines: planes, tanks, and guns

• Military materials: concrete, metals, plastics, composites

• Camps: Relocation and Prisoner-of-war

• Nuclear Age sites: testing grounds and development sites

• Cold War sites: bunkers, silos, and missiles

• Remembrances: monuments and memorials

• Archives: posters, photographs, letters, documents

The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, the Friends of NCPTT, Nimitz Foundation, and the National Museum of the Pacific War, organized the symposium.