By David Harry

Staff Writer

It was a sight that made Paul Granger shudder.

“It is a hit to the gut. You think you get over this, but you don’t,” he said.

A continent and four decades removed from the Vietnam War, Granger stood across the room from the replica of a North Vietnamese prison cell. The cell, a focal point of the newly relocated Maine Military Museum and Learning Center in South Portland, was a reminder of where Granger spent the last months of the war.

Hundreds of people, including Gov. Paul LePage, Maine Secretary of State Charles Summers and South Portland Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis, poured through the doors of 50 Peary Terrace last Saturday to view displays that date to the French and Indian War collected by Air Force veteran and South Portland resident Lee Humiston.

Clusters of veterans swapped stories   and memories amidst displays of uniforms, headgear, weaponry, matchbooks, cigarette cases, tins of meal rations, military patches, photographs and letters from servicemen and family members. They peered into the dank cell, illuminated by dim light bulbs and inhabited by mannequins in inmate garb.

Humiston emphasized the museum is about the men and women affected by war through service or those who kept home fires stoked as he welcomed visitors to 3,000 square feet of historical artifacts. Granger, who came from San Diego, Calif., for the opening, had a different view.

“Lee is a fabulous guy and a keeper of the flame,” Granger said. “His dedication is beyond comprehension.”

Granger donated the flight suit he wore when his B-52 was shot down in December 1972. 

Humiston has collected items and tracked the fates of Vietnam War POWs for nearly 40 years. Some of his collection is in the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., and other pieces are housed in a military museum at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, N.J. Curator Ron Montgomery expanded the museum established to commemorate the crash of the airship Hindenburg in 1937.

Montgomery, grateful for Humiston’s help, attended the opening with a donation of silverware from the airship that may eventually be displayed in South Portland. 

“You can’t buy enough shelves and display cases to put stuff in,” Montgomery said of Humiston’s collection.

The museum’s new location, next to Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 832, is twice the size of the former location in Mill Creek Park, Humiston said. The new location will be permanent thanks to Humiston’s friend, Gary Crosby, who bought the building in October 2009, Humiston said.

Crosby was a busy man last Saturday as he greeted guests, set up food tables and attended to small details at the opening. 

“Seeing this makes it all worthwhile,” he said as he watched the museum visitors.

Opening ceremonies last Saturday included remarks from LePage and South Portland Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis. LePage and Col. Jack Mosher of the Maine Army National Guard also awarded the family of Army 1st Lt. Robert L. Norton the Maine Gold Star medal.

 Norton, a Korean War soldier from South Portland, was killed April 4, 1951, while he provided covering fire so his unit could attack an enemy machine gun emplacement.

Norton was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his valor. His family contributed a letter to the museum Norton wrote just before his death.

“I am alive, but not living away from you,” Humiston quoted from the letter. “When will this madness end?” 

Humiston said seeing Norton’s family get the award was the climax of the day and the quote from the letter exemplifies what the museum is about.

“It was never built to glorify war or be political. This place is neutral ground and I don’t care if you spent two years in the service peeling potatoes. You served your country,” he said.

Humiston, a 26-year Air Force veteran who never saw combat, said he has collected artifacts for about 40 years. His family ties are on display as well, from pictures of his great-grandfather Amos Humiston to a letter to President Reagan from his grandson.

His great-grandfather was killed at Gettysburg in the Civil War. Lee Humiston’s grandson asked Reagan not to waste so much money on bombs.

Eight former Vietnam War POWs attended the opening, as did two from World War II. Former Navy pilot Bob Fant, who spent four years and eight months as a North Vietnamese prisoner, told Korean War veteran Richard Campbell he was astounded when he read accounts of the Chinese attack in November 1950 that forced Marines to retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.

Fant said it was easy to get lost in the details of the displays. 

“This is so incredibly well done. You can spend hours here,” he said.

The prison cell seemed familiar too.

“Time heals a lot of wounds, but it is a very realistic recreation,” he said.

Campbell, a South Portland resident who donated his uniform to the museum, said he was glad to see Korean War veterans get more recognition, even though Humiston was unable to display his trousers on a mannequin with the rest of his uniform.

“I’ll have his pants on him this week,” Humiston promised.

Among World War II veterans who attended the reopening was South Portland resident James A. Sheppard, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first black military airmen.

Sheppard pointed at cloth regimental patches and airplane models that hang from the ceiling as he talked about the planes he maintained while he served in Africa and Europe.

“The only thing we didn’t fly was the P-38s,” he recalled. “This is one of the better collections because it covers all the World War II units.”

Army Vietnam War veteran Everett King came from northern California for the museum opening after donating World War II-era Life magazines to Humiston. King, who was held prisoner for a week in 1968 when enemy forces overran Hue in the Tet Offensive, said he felt so lucky he escaped and avoided imprisonment. He never got in touch with other POWs until he met Humiston.

“But when I did, it meant others realized I was alive,” he said.

The Maine Military Museum and Learning Center is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.