ARAB, Alabama — "Well, my father was in the second World War. He was combat medic and um, never could get him to talk too much about it," said President of the Cost of Freedom Veterans Museum, Gene Bishop.
"My grandfather, he's a World War I [veteran] he's a first-generation born here. You know, I have all his stuff," said Senior Vice Commander of American Legion Post 114, Kenneth Clark.
This made Bishop want to know more about this history and both men agree that this history needs to be taught to the masses.
"We got to remind our younger generation and my kids, the freedoms that they take advantage of now, this is the cost that was paid," said Clark.
"So, there's several of us guys that got together, that had a lot of memorabilia and so we decided, 'hey, let's see if we can put it to a good use,'" said Bishop.
And that's exactly what those vets did... The Cost of Freedom Veterans Museum not only provides a place for fellow veterans to honor those who served before and beside them but to educate those who have not served themselves.
"There's a lot of vets that don't want to talk about it but we've got to get the message out. We want them to know that we love them and we appreciate, you know, what we did, what they did," Bishop gets choked up a bit. "And so, we want, we want the rest of the world, our country, our kids to know what they went through."
So, the mission of the museum is the same as the mission of Veterans Day, to honor all that have served, all that have helped pay the Cost of Freedom.
"You know, Memorial Day is about all those that died in previous battles and you know, so, Veterans Day, we just want to make sure we honor all veterans that have served," said Clark.