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American Morning

Inside Pentagon Hangs Some of Military's Art Collection

Aired August 23, 2001 - 11:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Inside the Pentagon hangs some of the military's extensive art collection, strange as that may sound.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us live from the Pentagon with a look at some of the art.

Jeanne, hello again.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Stephen.

Amongst the art, incredible ship models. When you think of the ship's models, you probably think of the tall ships with their rigging and cannon.

But take a look at this. This is a model of the USS Skipjack, a nuclear-powered submarine that was commissioned in 1959. It was the first nuclear submarine to have this cigar shape. It was very innovative, gave the submarine a lot of speed. This model is just one of 2,000 in the Navy's collection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA WEGNER, NAVY CURATOR OF MODELS: Ship models have been built by man ever since almost the beginning of the time. Ship models found in Egyptian tombs. Ship models have been found in Viking graves. Our models are made just to look at. The program was begun in 1883 to produce models for the Navy Department to show the public what their new ships would look like. The Navy Department's collection is about 2,000 models. For instance, the large model of the USS Missouri, the battleship at the Naval Museum and the Washington Naval yard, that was built in 1946, and they stopped counting the number of work hours used on it at 77,000.

The little table and chair was put in place there, along with an American flag on the bulkhead above it to represent the exact spot where the instruments of surrender were signed between Japan and the United States and the Allied nations, and the World War II in the Pacific.

And here we repair and refurbish the models as they pass through here. All three of us who work here have similar backgrounds. We all started building model kits, and all had the same problems with sticky glue prints all over them, and whether you painted them, or blew them up with the fire crackers, it's all the same story regardless. The Navy still has a sense of continuity today, despite the fact that the Navy is growing smaller and they're not building as many ships as they had in the past, they're still building models of them. I think, at least, at least subconsciously, with the idea that the new models built today would be the antiques, and the record of their ship-building endeavors years from years now. And so keep going along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: And you are look now at the live picture of the USS Wasp. This is an amphibious assault ship. The detail just incredible. The requirement on some of these model that anything as small as 6" has to be represented in the ship's model.

Back to you Stephen.

FRAZIER: Six inches in real life, Jeanne.

MESERVE: That's right. Something like a door knob or a rivet has to be represented on the models.

FRAZIER: Is it possible for the public to see those.

MESERVE: There are a few displayed in the Navy Yard in Washington. There are other Navy collections. They aren't curated by the same people, but for instance at Annapolis, at the Naval Academy, there's a collection of ships, so there are various places you can see it. And if you take a tour of the Pentagon, you can take a look to.

Let me tell you that the guys who run this collection love their work. They say they get calls all of the time from hobbyists who say, gee, do you have any openings? And their response is, no one's died work. They love their work.

FRAZIER: We're glad that they are healthy.

And Jeanne, thank you very much for a look into their world. Jeanne Meserve at the Pentagon.

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