“On this day in May, our post was hit with mortars… shortly after the trucks left the bridge there was a large explosion.” Specialist Joe Naylor’s radio call doesn’t explain the war. It puts you inside it. Recent military service is raw, complex, and too often invisible to the Americans it’s carried out on behalf of. This permanent exhibition brings the 1st Infantry Division’s story from 1970 to today, and into the near future, into clear view.

A 55-year timeline can overwhelm before it enlightens. We reframed the chronology into five thematic zones: Deterrence, Battle, Peacekeeping, Counterinsurgency, and Military Assistance. Visitors choose their own path through the material, guided by a single question: what does each mission ask of a soldier, a family, and a nation?

Working with our media and interactive partners, we shaped layered installations where visitors hear directly from soldiers and families. They step through a virtual house raid to understand what decision-making under pressure actually looks like. A Gulf War engagement comes to life through first-person accounts, artifacts, and synchronized media that refuse to let the event stay in the past. Every element grounds policy in lived experience.

The exhibition ends with an interactive poll linking personal values to civic responsibility and tangible ways to support those who serve. What a mission asks of a soldier is only the beginning of what it asks of the rest of us.