On August 27, The National World War II Museum in New Orleans held a site dedication for the next building in its ongoing $300 million expansion project, The United States Freedom Pavilion: Land, Sea & Air, scheduled to open in spring 2012. The museum announced two principal contributions – a $20 million Congressional grant through the Department of Defence and a $15 million gift from The Boeing Company – its largest federal and largest private gifts to date, representing a $35 million investment in New Orleans.

The U.S. Freedom Pavilion will feature exhibits on all branches of the military, including the Coast Guard and the Merchant Marines. It will also showcase the large artifacts that were integral to the Allied victory in World War II, including a Boeing B-17G “Flying Fortress” and four other iconic WWII aircraft. These artifacts represent the nation’s tremendous industrial capacity, legendary production and wartime ingenuity. The Boeing Center will encompass the atrium where the restored B-17 will be on display.

Peter Mayer secured an exclusive advance feature article with the Associated Press that generated nearly 200 placements, including Yahoo! News, ABCNews.com, MSNBC.com and the print editions of the Los Angeles Times and Long Island’s Newsday. The Times-Picayune covered the daytime event, as did the top three local TV stations, WWL, WDSU and WVUE. FOX News Channel also attended. For several hours, the event was the featured tweet on MSNBC Travel’s Twitter feed (@msnbc_travel), which has more than 61,000 followers.