The new National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington represents our nation’s highest ideals
Speak to almost anyone associated with the new National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington and you’ll notice something interesting: There’s little talk of bravery, valor or heroism.
What you’ll hear instead are words like duty, sacrifice and commitment.
The museum, which threw a black-tie VIP ribbon-cutting Saturday ahead of opening to the public Tuesday, represents those ideals above all others — they are what the curators want visitors to take with them when they leave, along with the stories of some of the 3,528 Medal of Honor recipients.
Located at 1861 AT&T Way in Arlington, tucked between Choctaw Stadium and the Arlington Museum of Art, the National Medal of Honor Museum offers a poignant reminder of the promises our military men and women make to our nation and to each other.
The very structure of the museum is symbolic of this. The massive steel block that houses the exhibits sits atop five pillars, one each for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. The pillars represent the weight that service members bear — what Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter calls “the beautiful burden.” A pillar of light shining from the atop the museum signifies the U.S. Space Force, our newest branch.
Outside is a rotunda that will be open to visitors 24 hours a day. Inside on the ground floor is a ring of honor with the names of all the recipients going back to the first soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor, in 1863 during the Civil War.
Upstairs are approximately 200 exhibits, which will rotate in the years to come, highlighting recipients’ stories. There you’ll find things like Sgt. Alvin York’s pistol and Bible from World War I. There is a jacket, guitar and other personal effects that belonged to Texan Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated soldiers in World War II.
A Bell UH-1 Iroquois “Huey” medevac helicopter, modeled after the one flown by Army recipient Patrick Brady in Vietnam, dominates one corner of the museum. Not far from it are mementos from men who fought more recently in places like Afghanistan and Iraq during the Global War on Terror. In one case is Army recipient Clinton Romesha’s high school FFA jacket, a reminder of the humanity behind the medal.
Another case houses uniforms belonging to retired Navy SEAL Britt Slabinski, including the bullet-torn uniform trousers he wore the day his actions in Afghanistan earned him the Medal of Honor.
In March 2002, Slabinski led a team up Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot mountain ridge in eastern Afghanistan, to conduct reconnaissance. In the early morning darkness, a rocket-propelled grenade struck their helicopter. The impact ejected Navy Petty Officer Neil Roberts into the snow below and forced the copter down. Outmatched by the enemy’s numbers and under heavy fire, Slabinski ordered another helicopter and took his team back up Takur Ghar to help Roberts.
While seven Americans died that day, including Roberts, Slabinski showed incredible fortitude in leading the attack and stabilizing casualties while awaiting evacuation.
‘I will do my best to do my duty’
Fear is an emotion, and it’s only overcome by choice. In Slabinski’s case, he made the choices he did after reciting to himself the Scout Oath, which begins “on my honor, I will do my best to do my duty.”
Slabinski, who attained Eagle Scout at age 14, told the Star-Telegram in an interview that those words guided his decision to go back for Roberts despite the dangers to him and his men.
“They were put in a very complicated situation,” Slabinski said of the recipients honored in the museum, himself included. “First they were volunteers, then they were put in a situation, a nearly impossible spot to make decisions in, and they had to make decisions, and they made those decisions in that moment based on a couple of things: first, they had made a promise to the people to their left and right and to those behind them that I’m going to do my best in this situation to make it right no matter what.
“You had this human at a friction point who decided I’m going to do something about this,” he said.
One of the most unique exhibits in the museum gives you the chance to “talk” with a Medal of Honor recipient in a virtual reality setting. Thanks to hundreds of hours of interview footage, visitors can sit down and ask questions of two recipients and learn the details of their lives and combat actions.
Slabinski hopes experiences like that will change the ways visitors interact with others and with the world around them. He also hopes that, instead of glorifying combat, the museum will provide a stark reminder that war is, in fact, hell.
“I talk a lot in lectures about this: Could we possibly as a human race evolve beyond this need to have this kinetic reaction with each other?” Slabinski said. “Could we, in some dream world, make a Medal of Honor recipient an endangered species? Could we somehow not have the need, like a caveman, to take your club to the next cave and bash someone over the head to get fire? Is there another way that we could communicate with each other? Very lofty idea, right?”
Slabinski, who is part of the museum’s board of directors, said Arlington was chosen as the home for the National Medal of Honor Museum because it’s perfectly situated in the middle of the country, near a major airport, and it’s already an established destination. It’s also in Texas, and as Slabinski put it, “you’re not going to get any more patriotic than Texas.”
Saturday’s ribbon-cutting included Gov. Greg Abbott, former President George W. Bush, Dallas Cowboys players and about 30 of the 61 living Medal of Honor recipients.
The National Medal of Honor Museum is now open daily from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tickets start at $30 for ages 13 to 64; adding a virtual reality experience starts at $40, and VIP guided tours are from $60. Boeing is sponsoring the tickets of all U.S. veterans with valid ID who visit the museum March 25 to 28.
The museum is also spearheading plans for a Medal of Honor monument that will be installed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., likely near the Lincoln Memorial. The museum foundation is responsible for raising money for the project, with no use of federal funding.
This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM.