First CEO appointed to National Museum of Americans in Wartime expects visitor center built by 2019

Family members fought in WWI and WWII

DALE CITY — The National Museum of Americans in Wartime took another step toward completion. On July 2, the Museum appointed its first CEO – Kraig Butrum, who, with close to 25 years of experience working with nonprofits., Under his leadership, supporters hope they can finally bring the much-talked-about museum to Prince William County.

Before he was appointed the director of the museum effort,  Kraig previously worked with Conservation International, NASA, and The Nuclear Threat Initiative. But the work he is doing now for the Museum hits close to home.

“My father was a B-17 pilot in World War II, my grandfathers were in World War I, and both my brothers-in-law were in Vietnam, and so it’s really an exciting way for me to give back to those people that have served,” Butrum said.

The home of the future museum lies on 70 acres in Dale City, behind an At Home retail store on Dale Boulevard near Interstate 95 that once was a K-Mart. The was donated by the Hylton Family Foundation.  

The museum has already begun work on grading and moving dirt to level the area where they will have their parking and visitor center. This phase – Phase 1 – should be done in about a year or a year and a half, depending on the weather.

“The unglamorous part of building a museum is to build the infrastructure. So, we need to move storm drains and water pipes – there’s power lines overhead we need to move those and put them underground. So, a lot of that unglamorous part of construction has to occur this year,” said Butrum.

The Museum will need to raise about $30 million for its next phase, and Kraig will be presenting a strategic plan to the Museum board this month explaining how they can get to that goal.  The good news is that they are moving. “Our goal is to have the visitor center and the first restoration facility up by the end of 2019,” Butrum said.

Butrum also explained that a service that the Museum currently offers is a traveling RV that happens to be a state-of-the-art mobile recording studio. This project is known as The Voices of Freedom.

They interview veterans – or anyone with a wartime experience – so they can tell their stories. The RV was recently camped out at the Manassas History Weekend, where they interviewed 6 veterans in one day. They then give a DVD copy of the interview to the Library of Congress as well as to the veteran.  Veterans interested in being interviewed can visit the museum’s website to see where the RV will be located or submit a request here.

The RV will be camped out at the Museum’s open house, known as the Tank Farm, this September 22 – 23. Allan Cors, a benefactor and philanthropist who has been helping the Museum, has a huge collection of military equipment and vehicles.

“Every year he hosts an annual open house at his farm out in Nokesville,” Butrum said. “Allan will donate at least 100 vehicles toward this Museum and so we’ll have real operating machinery. Kids spend most of their life in front of a phone or a monitor and it’s always nice to let them touch and feel what’s real out there, and also see the progress over the years.”

For more information about this year’s Tank Farm, visit nmaw.org/news/events/.