Home of the Brave Museum

  • Home
  • Home of the Brave Museum

Home of the Brave Museum Honor. Salute. Located at 909 Waimanu Street, we brew beer inside of our private museum & share it both on site in our speakeasy & next door in our brewseum!
(268)

Home of the Brave Museum & Heritage Center is a nonprofit WWII and American service history museum, founded in Hawaii and now being rebuilt at Bear’s Ranch in Durango, Colorado. 🇺🇸 Remember.

Life is funny…This first photo was taken on March 4, 2017.Janet and I had flown from Honolulu to meet Bear and Emma in D...
05/08/2026

Life is funny…

This first photo was taken on March 4, 2017.

Janet and I had flown from Honolulu to meet Bear and Emma in Durango as they searched for the perfect place to be married.

They had fallen in love with Chris Park, just down Haviland Lake Road.

It was still winter, and the gate to Chris Park was closed because of the snow. So we parked in front of a place called Rapp Corral (now Bears Ranch), put on our cross-country skis, and skied in together to scout out the wedding site.

Five months later, we returned for their wedding. Once again, we drove right past Rapp Corral on our way to Chris Park. It was simply another beautiful ranch along the road.

Nothing more.

At the time, our lives were in Honolulu.

The Brewseum was thriving.

The Home of the Brave Museum was thriving.

Hawaii was home.

If someone had stopped me that day and said,

“Glen… in just a few years you’ll leave Hawaii, move to Colorado, and one day you’ll be living on this very ranch…”

I would have laughed and said,

“You’re out of your mind.”

Yet here I am.

Tonight, I’m sitting in a cabin on what was once Rapp Corral, looking across the very ranch where we parked that snowy March morning.

We came here to help Bear and Emma begin the next chapter of their lives.

We had no idea we were quietly taking the first steps toward the next chapter of ours.

Sometimes the places we visit for just a day become the places we eventually call home.

We just don’t know it yet.

The Red ThreadThere is an old East Asian legend that speaks of an invisible red thread connecting people whose lives are...
01/08/2026

The Red Thread

There is an old East Asian legend that speaks of an invisible red thread connecting people whose lives are meant to cross.

The thread may stretch.

It may twist.

It may disappear from sight for years.

But somehow… it always finds its way back.

That story came to mind in the middle of the night.

Back in 2018, we were working to move the Home of the Brave from Kakaʻako to Waikīkī. With the generous support of our friend Richard Pentecost, we were creating a new home that would bring together the Home of the Brave Museum, the Brewseum, Wiki Waki Woo, the Pan American Clipper Club, Pearl Harbor tours, and much more under one roof.

One of the people I reached out to was Vietnam veteran Sergeant David Hack, founder of U.S. Wings. We were discussing a partnership to supply authentic flight jackets for our gift shop and tossing around ideas for the new museum.

During one of our conversations, I mentioned that both of my parents had worked for Pan American World Airways.

Sarge paused for a moment and said,

“I was stationed with the Coast Guard on Wake Island in 1957. We used to chaperone the Pan Am stewardesses during their layovers. We’d take them water skiing.”

My jaw dropped.

My mother had told that very same story throughout my childhood.

I asked him, “Do you remember Carol?”

Without hesitation, he replied…

“Yes… I remember your mom.”

Think about that for a moment.

A young Coast Guardsman and a Pan American stewardess meet on a tiny coral island in the middle of the Pacific.

Life carries them in completely different directions.

He goes on to fight in Vietnam and survive one of the war’s deadliest ambushes.

She marries, raises a family, and shares stories of her Pan Am adventures with her children.

More than sixty years later, her son unknowingly calls that same Coast Guardsman—not because of Wake Island—but to help build a Pan American-themed museum in Hawaiʻi.

Neither of them could have imagined that day back in 1957 where life would eventually lead.

Then COVID arrived.

Like so many dreams during that time, our plans for Waikīkī were put on hold, and our conversations slowly faded away.

But I’ve never forgotten that moment.

Perhaps the real thread wasn’t simply between Sgt. Hack and my mother.

Perhaps it connects all of us who dedicate our lives to remembering those who came before us.

History has a remarkable way of introducing us to the right people…

Sometimes decades before we understand why.

Remember • Honor • Salute

When we think about World War II, it’s easy to divide the world into heroes and enemies.But sometimes history reminds us...
29/07/2026

When we think about World War II, it’s easy to divide the world into heroes and enemies.

But sometimes history reminds us that character is revealed not only in how we fight…

…but in how we treat those we’ve defeated.

During World War II, thousands of German prisoners of war were brought to camps across Colorado.

With so many American men serving overseas, Colorado farmers desperately needed help bringing in the harvest. German POWs worked in sugar beet fields, harvested crops, and helped keep farms operating while the war raged half a world away.

Many of those farmers had sons wearing American uniforms in Europe.

According to the Geneva Convention, the prisoners were treated humanely. They were given food, medical care, and the opportunity to work.

Some Americans questioned why we would show kindness to enemy soldiers.

The answer was simple.

Because that’s who we are.

America didn’t fight the war to become like the regimes we opposed.

We fought to defend the values that made our nation worth defending.

When the war ended, something remarkable happened.

Some of those former German prisoners returned to Colorado—not as prisoners, but as visitors.

They came back to shake the hands of the families who had treated them with dignity. Some even made Colorado their home.

It’s a reminder that even in the darkest chapters of history…

Humanity still has the power to leave a lasting impression.

Sometimes the greatest victories aren’t won on the battlefield.

Sometimes they’re won by refusing to lose our character.

Remember. Honor. Salute.

What became of the children?When we tell the story of World War II, we often talk about the soldiers.We remember the bea...
16/07/2026

What became of the children?

When we tell the story of World War II, we often talk about the soldiers.

We remember the beaches of Normandy. The jungles of the Pacific. The skies over Europe.

But there was another army left behind.

An army of children.

Children who had lost their parents. Children who had lost their homes. Children who no longer knew where they belonged.

Many had nothing more than the clothes they were wearing.

American servicemen encountered them everywhere—in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, the Philippines, Okinawa, and countless other places where war had swept through.

Those soldiers had come to fight a war.

Instead, many also became big brothers.

They shared their rations. They gave away candy that had been saved from home. They found blankets, carried frightened children to safety, searched for surviving relatives, and, in some cases, helped orphaned children begin entirely new lives.

For a little boy or girl who had forgotten what it felt like to be safe, the strongest man in the world wasn’t a movie hero.

It was the young GI who lifted them into his arms.

History remembers the battles because they changed the world.

We should also remember these quiet moments because they changed someone’s entire life.

Sometimes the greatest victory wasn’t won with a r***e.

Sometimes it was won with kindness.

Remember • Honor • Salute

Baby Nancy: The Youngest Soul at Pearl HarborMost people know that 58 men remain entombed aboard the USS Utah at Pearl H...
14/07/2026

Baby Nancy: The Youngest Soul at Pearl Harbor

Most people know that 58 men remain entombed aboard the USS Utah at Pearl Harbor.

Few know they are not alone.

Locked inside Chief Yeoman Albert Wagner’s locker was an urn containing the ashes of his infant daughter, Nancy Lynne. He had planned to give her a proper burial at sea, but before a Navy chaplain could perform the ceremony, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The Utah capsized in just minutes.

Chief Wagner survived, but Baby Nancy’s ashes were lost forever inside the ship.

Today, she rests beneath the waters of Pearl Harbor alongside the sailors who gave their lives that morning.

For decades, Nancy’s twin sister, Mary Dianne Kreigh, visited Home of the Brave each December, sharing her family’s remarkable story. Mary wasn’t just a storyteller—she became a dear friend and one of HOTB’s most loyal supporters, even stepping forward to help us during some of our most difficult days.

Mary once said she could think of no greater honor than knowing her little sister would forever be “in such magnificent company.”

Sometimes history isn’t measured by the length of a life…

…but by the love that carries a story across generations.

Remember • Honor • Salute

Every great story begins around a campfire.Long before podcasts, television, or the internet, people gathered around a f...
11/07/2026

Every great story begins around a campfire.

Long before podcasts, television, or the internet, people gathered around a fire to share what they had seen, what they had learned, and what they never wanted future generations to forget.

At Home of the Brave, that's still what we do.

Over the past forty years, we've listened to thousands of veterans, family members, and everyday Americans. Many began with the same words:

"I don't know if my story is important."

It is.

History isn't only written by presidents and generals. It's written by the mechanic who kept an airplane flying, the nurse who comforted the wounded, the radio operator who never left a post, the mother waiting at home, and the child who remembered.

Every artifact in our museum is an anchor to a human story. Every story is a gift to the future.

One day, your children or grandchildren may wish they had asked you just one more question.

Don't let your story be the one that was never told.

Remember • Honor • Salute

One of the highlights of this July 5th at Home of the Brave was welcoming our friend Johnny Valdez as our guest speaker....
11/07/2026

One of the highlights of this July 5th at Home of the Brave was welcoming our friend Johnny Valdez as our guest speaker.

Johnny shared his family’s remarkable story—from his Buffalo Soldier great-grandfather to his Southern Ute heritage—but his most powerful message wasn’t about the past. It was about what we choose to do with it.

He reminded us that history is not meant to divide us into “us” and “them.” It’s meant to help us better understand one another. Every culture has stories worth preserving. Every family has sacrifices worth honoring. Every generation has the responsibility to leave this land—and each other—a little better than we found it.

As Johnny said, “We all want peace. We all want love.”

At Home of the Brave, that’s exactly why we preserve these stories—not to reopen old wounds, but to build new understanding.

Thank you, Johnny, for reminding us that when we take the time to learn someone else’s story, we often discover we have far more in common than we ever imagined.

This Independence Day, we were honored to welcome General Ron Fogelman to Bear’s Ranch. His message reminded us that Ame...
10/07/2026

This Independence Day, we were honored to welcome General Ron Fogelman to Bear’s Ranch. His message reminded us that America’s greatest strength has never been its weapons—it has always been the men and women willing to serve. He also reminded our guests why Home of the Brave exists: not simply to preserve artifacts, but to keep alive the stories, sacrifices, and promises entrusted to us by a generation that is quickly leaving us. We were humbled by his words and grateful to share this special day with all who came to Remember • Honor • Salute.

04/07/2026

Happy 4TH of July from and 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

04/07/2026

🇺🇸 Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸

Today we celebrate America’s 250th Birthday and Colorado’s 150th Birthday—a historic milestone we’re proud to commemorate here in the American West.

Join us at Bears Ranch for our Home of the Brave Museum America 250 / Colorado 150 Commemoration, where we’re honoring our nation’s history while raising support to rebuild the future Home of the Brave Museum & Heritage Campus.

Enjoy military history exhibits, veteran recognition, live music, food, family activities, and more—all while helping preserve the stories of those who have served our country.

📍 Bears Ranch
🕙 Today, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM
🎟️ FREE • Family Friendly

Come celebrate, remember, honor, and help build the future. 🇺🇸

Address

HI

Telephone

+18083968112

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Home of the Brave Museum posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Want your museum to be the top-listed museum?

Share