Heroes Hall Museum & Education Center Media Guide

The Heroes Hall building houses various exhibitions. Each exhibition will focus on the personal experiences of our veterans.

Echoes of Conflict: Remembering Vietnam

Debuted February 2025

Echoes of Conflict: Remembering Vietnam offers a powerful and immersive journey through one of modern history’s most complex and divisive conflicts. Through a rich collection of artifacts, personal stories, historical facts and poignant memorabilia, visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the war’s profound impact on the soldiers who fought and the broader global context. The exhibit features items such as uniforms, weaponry, photographs and letters detailing firsthand accounts that highlight the cost of war and its lasting effects on individuals and society. This comprehensive display seeks to honor the experiences of those involved while providing historical insights into the war’s political, social and cultural repercussions.

The SAAAB Story

Debuted February 2017

The SAAAB (Santa Ana Army Air Base) Story exhibition celebrates the history of the pre-flight training center, its contribution to the war effort, the airmen that served here and its role in the development of the growth of Orange County through film, photographs, maps, oral histories, works of art, and ephemera. The air base’s location once included the land on which the OC Fairgrounds now sits, and Heroes Hall’s building is a renovated barracks from the base. The exhibit first debuted when Heroes Hall opened in 2017 but has been updated with several new artifacts and pieces of memorabilia.

Previous Exhibitions

The Vietnam War Through the Art and Photography of Ed Bowen (May-December 2024)
Featuring letters, memorabilia, photographs and more than 30 paintings and sketches produced by combat artist Ed Bowen during and after his tour of duty in Vietnam. The collection of paintings revealed much about the artist but also about a war that continues to inspire deep feelings, convictions and questions.

Valor & Virtue: Jewish American Medal of Honor Recipients (October 2023-March 2024)
The exhibition focuses on all 18 Jewish American Medal of Honor recipients, from Civil War’s Benjamin Levy to the most recent, Christopher Celiz, who was posthumously awarded for his action in the Afghanistan War. Awarded for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty,” the Medal of Honor is the highest award for acts of valor the nation can bestow. Central to the exhibit is the story of Tibor Rubin, a Holocaust survivor who became a hero fighting for the U.S. Army in Korea before settling in Orange County. Through personal items, photographs, medals, uniforms and letters, the exhibition chronicled exceptional courage and highlights the military’s long fight to overcome boundaries of race, color and creed.

Armed Only with a Camera: World War II Photography of Stanley Troutman (October 2022-September 2023)
While most men carried weapons into battle during World War II, war correspondent Stanley Troutman was armed only with a camera. Serving his country by photographing the war in the South Pacific Theater including the devastated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bombs, Troutman’s images tell the story of the horrors of war as well as the service and sacrifice of American troops. The exhibition featured photographs, letters, artifacts and memorabilia from Troutman’s tour in the South Pacific including his time on mainland Japan.

Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II (February-September 2022)
Produced by The National WWII Museum, the exhibit features artifacts, photographs and oral histories to highlight some of the extraordinary achievements and challenges of African Americans during World War II, both overseas and on the Home Front. On display through September 18, 2022, Fighting for the Right to Fight illustrates how hopes for securing equality inspired many to enlist, the discouraging reality of the segregated non-combat roles given to black recruits, and the continuing fight for “Double Victory” that laid the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Through Their Eyes: Artwork by Active Military and Veterans (October 2021-January 2022)
Juried show featuring artwork by 23 U.S. military veterans from Southern California. These artists have expressed their individual experiences through a variety of mediums including sculpture, photography, painting, carving and woodworking. The artists’ subjects are as unique as the artists themselves and range from combat scenes to flowers, and from landscapes to surreal portraits. Though their artwork varies by subject and individual perspective, one thing unifies them: they have all served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Private Charles J. Miller: WWII Paintings from the South Pacific (November 2020–September 2021)
Focusing on the World War II watercolor paintings of Private Charles J. Miller, the exhibit is the visual diary of Miller, who chronicled his military service in the South Pacific theater during WWII. Miller was a self-taught artist who had been drawing throughout his lifetime, teaching himself perspective, anatomy and drawing and painting techniques.

Fighting on the Home Front: Propaganda Posters of World War II (October 2019-March 2020)
Some 28 posters are featured in the exhibition on loan from the Detroit Historical Museum. To augment the traveling display, videos of propaganda cartoons produced by Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. were added as well as WWII newsreels. Another addition to the exhibit is a Victory Garden planted with fruits, vegetables and herbs. Created in collaboration with Centennial Farm, the garden illustrates how people grew their own food to help the war effort. The themes of the exhibition are conservation, recruitment, patriotism and security, highlighting how persuasion was used to encourage those on the home front to do their part to help win the war.

Victory From Within: The American Prisoner of War Experience (January-September 2019)
Freedom does not come free. No one knows better what it is like to have their freedom stripped from them than those who became prisoners of war while serving their country. This traveling exhibit was created by the National Park Service. It explores the lives of POWs and features four key themes: capture, prison life, those who wait, and freedom.

Bravemind (July 2018-January 2019)
Bravemind is an interactive virtual reality exhibit showcasing technology that helps provide relief from post-traumatic stress. Developed by Dr. Albert ‘Skip’ Rizzo, Director for Medical Virtual Reality at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, Bravemind features exposure therapy, a guided retelling of experiences that helps people manage their fears within a safe VR environment. This is primarily used to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms but can also assist those facing ongoing stress from painful situations by reducing anxiety.

Kimberly Millett’s Operation Iraqi Freedom (October 2017-June 2018)
U.S. Army Public Affairs Specialist Kimberly Millett spent two deployments documenting the Iraqi War. Through photographs and commentary, this exhibition is an unbridled look at her interactions with Iraqis, the generals in charge of the war and the military fighting it. Rather than recording the violence of military confrontation, Millett highlights the times between conflict, when it is safe to show some intimacy and humanity.

The Things They Carried (February-October 2017)
Based on and named after the book by Tim O’Brien, the exhibit featured stories about Vietnam War veterans as told through text, photography, film, audio, digital media, art and personal items. Additional narratives and objects from Orange County veterans were included in the exhibition during its run.