Museum Review - Oklahoma National Guard Museum

Ever since I moved to Oklahoma, one of my favorite military museums has been the 45th Infantry Division Museum. Not because it was a brilliant example of the art of making museums, because it wasn't, but it was close and interesting and characterful, an old building bursting at the seams with occasionally random artifacts. There was a sign in it that included the line "today, as we enter the 90s", and that more or less summed up how it was. But a year ago, they closed it to move to a new facility, which they were calling the Oklahoma National Guard Museum.¹ I'd been keeping an eye on progress, and made sure to show up a couple hours after it opened on Friday, June 12th, 2026.

The museum's very effective entrance

Website (Outdated)

To cut to the heart of the matter, I like the new museum less than the old one. It's not a bad museum by any means. If I was the state of Oklahoma mostly wanted a museum as a recruiting tool for my Guard units (and also was trying to shut up the Air Guard's complaints about the pro-Army bias of the 45th Infantry Museum), I would probably be pretty happy with what I'd gotten for my money. The exhibits are generally done fairly well, it's spacious and modern and doesn't have weird dead-end rooms, and everything is freshly painted. A school field trip could go there without having to budget an hour on the back end for search parties. And the sort of corridor of vehicles in front of the building is really well-done, probably the best military museum entrance I've ever seen.

They also occasionally seemed confused about what planes were which

But one of those vehicles is also a good showcase for the museum's flaws. The F-86D they have on display has the name Fred Haise painted on the side, a former pilot of the type for the OK ANG that you've probably heard of for his other work. But the sign spends half of its space talking about some Oklahoman who flew the Saber in Korea, then says "After the Korean War, the F-86 was redesignated the F-86D"² and proceeds to give a poor and occasionally ungrammatical account of the air-defense mission of the Oklahoma ANG. Notably absent from the signage? Fred Haise.³ That was probably the worst sign I saw, but there were quite a few others that could use some work, such as one that said "Allied control [of Italy] would cut off Axis supplies into Italy and North Africa." I understand that the war in the Mediterranean is kind of hard to explain, particularly if you want to put a positive spin on it, but that sentence combines a tautology and a flat untruth.⁴

They also did something I really like and haven't seen before, using a QR code to steer people to a public domain document. More museums should do that.

Now, that's easy enough to fix (I am available if they want me) and there are some other definite advantages to the new museum. They have a lot more administrative and storage space than they used to, which is going to make it a lot easier to update exhibits. There's a rotating gallery, currently showing photos from Korea, but I wouldn't be surprised if they started getting more substantial things in there now that the main work of getting open is done, and one of the docents told me that they also plan to rotate some stuff in the main exhibits.⁵ Coverage of the Air National Guard has been significantly improved, and some of the exhibits there are quite nice, although others are pretty sparse. And for those who are interested, there's a much heavier focus on individual people's stories.⁶

As part of the recruiting focus, they have a lightly-loaded MOLLE pack you can put on. It's a neat touch.

So what's the verdict? Well, as I said above, it's not a bad museum, and if you're an Oklahoma-based reader, I certainly wouldn't recommend against going.⁷ But the magic that the old museum had is gone. The massive gun collection in largely not on display, simply because it didn't really have a strong connection to the Oklahoma National Guard, and the weird and wonderful collection of vehicles outside is largely not present, although I think it may still be accessible at the old museum. The Bill Mauldin and Dachau exhibits have both been cut down, and the Vietnam-era M113 is missing the Playboys. Ultimately, the issue is that the previous museum was a very strong recommend if you were passing through and had a couple hours, and now, I'm not sure it stands out.⁸ But I hope they continue to improve, and I will keep this updated as things change.

Oh, and one logistical note. Google Maps is somewhat confused about where the museum is right now. If you want to find it, ask for directions to either the Oklahoma National Guard Joint Force Headquarters or the Oklahoma Railway Museum, and then look for the building with all the planes and tanks out front.