An F4F Wildcat recovered from Lake Michigan is an authentic wartime centerpiece for the museum's exhibit that recreates the environment of a jungle airfield in the World War II Pacific Theater.  Note the cactus painted on the cowling of the aircraft, which commemorates the nickname of the aircraft and personnel that flew from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal during 1942-1943. With the island's codename "Cactus," they were called the "Cactus Air Force."

As Allied forces advanced across the Pacific during World War II as part of the "island-hopping" campaign, U.S. Navy Seabees began work on airstrips even while fighting still raged. These rustic facilities, like that pictured here on the island of Vella Lavella during 1943, supported the air campaigns that pounded islands slated for ensuing assaults. Among the squadrons that operated from Vella Lavella flying F4U Corsairs was Marine Fighting Squadron (VMF) 214, the famed "Black Sheep" commanded by Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.

Although impossible to recreate the heat, humidity, insects, and danger from enemy attack that was part of everyday life at airfields all across the Pacific during World War II, the rustic shower gives visitors a sense of a life out of the ordinary. The rules limiting water usage reveals that showers were a luxury rather than an everyday occurrence in the combat zone. Note the sign behind the shower, which displays distances to points around the world, the most important one being to Tokyo, the capital of Japan, at which the bomb atop the sign is thumbing its nose.

Once airfields became operational and enemy resistance on the islands on which they were located ceased, it did not take long for personnel to establish a haven for their off-duty hours. Rustic bars like "One-Eyed Jack's" in the Pacific Island Exhibit featured the standard pin-ups of starlets back home. "Torpedo-juice" made from alcohol removed from torpedoes coupled with liquor obtained on leave or in trades with aircraft crews that delivered supplies to the airfield kept personnel fortified.