TULSA, Okla. — The arctic blast has indefinitely postponed an Iwo Jima 80th anniversary event at Circle Cinema co-organized by Tulsa WWII collector Keith Myers that was set for Feb. 19.
2 News visited Myers' home, where he has dozens of items on display he regularly takes to public events, schools and nursing homes.
Myers' calls his services "The Traveling Military Museum".
"This flag was taken as a souvenir after the victorious Americans won the Battle of Iwo Jima," Myers said of a Japanese flag filled with signatures of Marines who fought on the island. "I got all the names and...last year, I found the last marine."
Myers' own father and stepfather fought in World War II. Since the 80s, he's collected dozens of medals, photos, and uniforms - some personally donated - showing what happened in the battle that turned the tide for the U.S. Against the Imperial Japanese.
2 News last talked to Myers in 2023. He's also the president of the Tulsa Pearl Harbor Survivors men's club.
- Previous coverage>>> 82 years later: Tulsa club commemorates Pearl Harbor attack
"One uniform was for a gentleman from Sand Springs," he said. "He was in the Navy, and he was with the PT boats."
By the end of the struggle to take the island, more than 7,000 American Marines died.
The Traveling Military Museum was going to be on full display at Circle Cinema, but Mother Nature got in the way.
"I was disappointed, saddened, but I was realistic."
The curator and walking storybook hopes to reschedule the event before March 26, the anniversary of the end of the battle. And he hopes more Oklahomans can take it in.
"What I would like for them to take (is), 'That was a real individual,'" Myers said. "And if I've got on (an item) that he was killed at so-and-so, 'That guy made a sacrifice for me.'"
The Traveling Military Museum can be reached at Myers473344@Gmail.com. Myers told 2 News free patriotic displays and programs are available for schools, libraries, veterans groups, church groups, and retirement communities.
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