National D-Day Museum (Part 2)

Jackson Barracks marks the eastern boundary of New Orleans as it meets St. Bernard Parish. It was first used as a Confederate Post, before it became a U.S. Military Reservation. Today, its antebellum styled officer's quarters are still used by officers assigned to the National Guard, Air National Guard and Reserve units located there.

During World War II, Camp Plauche, built on the western outskirts of New Orleans, at the base of the Huey P. Long Bridge, and Camp Leroy Johnson, built at Lake Pontchartrain, were used to hold prisoners of war. Camp Plauche was named for Major Jean Baptise Plauche, who served with Andrew Jackson. It was at Camp Plauche that the 765th Transportation Battalion was formed. My grandfather was the commissary manager for Camp Plauche, in those days.

Camp Leroy Johnson Naval Air Station was located at the site of the present main campus of UNO, at Elysian Fields Ave. and Lake Pontchartrain. UNO, which was known as LSUNO at the time, moved into the facilities in 1958. I remember, as a young boy, watching the fighter planes (WWII single engine prop aircraft) as they would take off. The eastern end of the runway was just about where the Student Union Building stands today. Now, only a smokestack and one of the barracks buildings on the campus remain to testify to its history.

The eastern UNO campus, on Lake Pontchartrain and Franklin Avenue, occupies what was once a part of Camp Leroy Johnson (the part that I knew as Camp Leroy Johnson). I always remember it as being an Army facility. That is what it was in 1963, when I used the Camp Leroy Johnson NCO club facilities for my wedding reception.

People think of the Michoud Assembly Facilityas the NASA manufacturing plant for the Space Shuttle's external fuel tanks. It is that, and in the 1960's, it was the assembly site for the Saturn 1B and Saturn 5 rocket boosters. Michoud has a very long history, too. In 1940, the U.S. Government purchased 1,000 acres of what was originally a French Royal Land Grant of 1763, to build an assembly plant. Then, in what was the largest building in the world, the U.S. built plywood cargo planes and landing craft for the war effort. Later, during the Korean Conflict, it was used for the production of 12-cylinder air-cooled engines for Sherman and Patton tanks.

Another military facility still active is Alvin Callender Field, the U.S. Naval Air Station in New Orleans, at Belle Chase, named for a World War I hero, Alvin "Sandy" Callender. On any given day, you can see the arrival or departures of state-of-the-art jet fighters, military transport and cargo craft, and attack helicopters. Units from Alvin Callender Field participated in the Gulf War against Iraq, in Yugoslavia and in the fight against terrorism.

This D-Day Museum will evoke strong emotions in several generations of U.S. veterans.