The Pacific Combat Zone is the latest and most illustrative exhibit area of the Museum. Opening on December 7, 2001 amidst 30,000 visitors commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the three-acre Zone, which is visited through guided tour groups, is captivating old and young alike by transporting them through various combat locations of the Pacific War. As you sit on the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier, you watch a Movietone News report of wartime events and then see an Avenger torpedo bomber, wings folded back, being readied for a strike. You next visit a South Pacific PT boat base with the world's only combat proven, restored, PT boat about to depart on a night mission. Then your guide takes you to a landing area on the Pacific Island where machine guns, mortars, and the sound of supporting aircraft convince you of the terror of these operations. Finally, you visit an island medical unit and hear the poignant report of casualties.

Until the addition of the new building abutting the George Bush Gallery is completed, several of the Pacific War relics that will eventually be exhibited there can be found on display at the Pacific Combat Zone. Of particular interest is the casing that would have housed the third or fourth atomic bomb had the Japanese Emperor not surrendered after the Nagasaki bombing.
 

PT Boat Tour , Virtual Tour Patrol Torpedo Boat-309 is the only restored World War II combat veteran Higgins class PT boat on public display in the United States today. It is shown at a dock in the south Pacific preparing for a night mission. Play the PT Boat Game

PHOTO GALLERY