The A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces National Tribute Tour, underwritten by The Boeing Company and produced by EpiCom Media, will bring the photographs from this celebrated project to nine cities and more than 30 military locations throughout America. The exhibit will be on display at the United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, from August 31 through December 7, 2004.
This extraordinary pictorial documentary records the daily sacrifices, integrity, and commitment of members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The photographs from the worldwide project were captured over a single 24-hour period in October 2002, when 125 award-winning civilian and military photographers fanned out across the globe to capture an ordinary day in the lives of the men and women who protect America's freedom.
The National Tribute Tour consists of three independent exhibits, traveling through the nation simultaneously. The largest of the exhibits debuted in May 2003, at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, and went on to be displayed in St. Louis--headquarters of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems--for seven weeks this summer. After an enthusiastic and heartwarming response in those two cities, Boeing made the commitment to bring the exhibition to more Americans across the country.
In addition to the original 65-photo exhibit, which will be exhibited at a total of eight large public venues (including Seattle's Museum of Flight; The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach; and the Peterson Air & Space Museum in Colorado Springs), two additional exhibits will be displayed at military academies and bases, many of which were photographed for the project. This part of the tour opened at Naval Air Station-North Island in San Diego on Nov. 14, 2003. Other locations that have hosted the exhibit include Fort Bragg (NC); Fort Lewis (WA); MCB Quantico (VA); Scott Air Force Base (IL); and MCB Camp Lejeune (NC). (See tour schedule for other locations and full details.)
These exhibits are a tribute to the men and women of our military, who have the courage, commitment and dedication required to defend freedom around the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The photographs depict men and women in remote outposts and strategic bases; in the cockpit of fighter jets and on Trident submarines; patrolling borders, going about their daily routines, and saying "good-bye." The pictures in the exhibits were selected from more than 300 photographs featured in the book A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces, produced by EpiCom Media and published by HarperCollins Publishers. The Boeing Company is the exclusive underwriter of both the book and the traveling photo exhibits.