In addition to equipment and hardware removed from the ship, the museum's exhibit devoted to the history of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV 6) features a host of small artifacts that include uniform items worn by a member of her Marine Detachment and fragments from a kamikaze that crashed into the ship during 1945. Pictured here is one display case within the exhibit that includes the personal mementos of one of the most famous aviators to serve in the carrier. Lieutenant Commander Edward H. "Butch" O'Hare was already a national hero when her reported aboard the "Big E" in 1943, having received the Medal of Honor the previous year. A leader in the development of night air combat, he was killed in November 1943 while flying an intercept of Japanese aircraft off the Gilbert Islands. Displayed in the case is his officer's dress sword and an engraved watch presented to him by the city of Chicago after he received the Medal of Honor.

One manner in which the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV 6) was commemorated was in the casting of ashtrays in the shape of the ship, one of which is in the museum collection. The name Enterprise, one of the most hallowed in U.S. Navy history lives on in a second aircraft carrier that bears the name. Commissioned in 1961, the eighth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name, she is the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in history.

This Navy Cross medal was awarded to Chief Machinist William A. Smith for actions on board the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV 6) during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942. With the ship's rudder jammed after being hit by Japanese aircraft, she was left steaming in a circle. Donning a Rescue Breathing Apparatus, Smith braved hot, smoke-filled passageways, collapsing twice, to reach the steering engine room. There, he and a fellow crewmen repaired the rudder and remained at their station despite tremendous heat to ensure the function of the rudder, thus allowing the ship to maneuver.

A pair of SBD-5 Dauntless dive-bombers assigned to Bombing Squadron (VB) 10 pass over the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV 6) while she steams in the Pacific Ocean during 1944. The "Big E" was one of the last fleet carriers to operate the venerable SBD, which was responsible for sinking all four Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway. VB-10 flew Dauntless dive-bombers from Enterprise during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944.