“He heard they were having a reunion,” Mueller said. Along the way, Ambrose was drawn to a smaller-scale project, charting the dramatic journey of Easy Company from its intensive training in America through high-profile combat episodes across Europe. The strategic visit came as part of a D-Day oral history project, the results of which are now preserved in the Museum’s collection.ĭrawing support from UNO’s Eisenhower Center for Leadership Studies and Mueller, a university vice chancellor at the time, Ambrose was assembling material for a definitive book treatment of the Normandy invasion, to be published at the 50th anniversary of the epic battle. Mueller, who this year transitioned into the role of Museum President & CEO Emeritus, recalled how his friend appeared at a 1988 hotel reunion of veterans of Easy Company (506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division) and persuaded the men to grant interviews. The pair became cofounders of the institution initially known as The National D-Day Museum.
“Nick” Mueller, PhD, began drafting plans for a WWII museum in the Crescent City.
With a new foreword by Museum champion Tom Hanks, the anniversary edition is available through the Museum Store.Īmbrose’s early work on the book, which would become the basis of an award-winning HBO miniseries, dates to the late 1980s, not long before Ambrose and fellow University of New Orleans history professor Gordon H. The recent release of a 25th-anniversary edition of the Stephen Ambrose best seller Band of Brothers stirs memories of Ambrose’s research in preparation for writing the classic narrative of Easy Company paratroopers during World War II.
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