By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

To walk through the living room and beyond the kitchen of Lee Humiston’s Cape Elizabeth home, is to walk into a museum.

A bookcase on the far wall of the room holds cups used by Vietnam
prisoners of war (POWs) while they were held captive in Hanoi. Behind
the cups are rows of books written by some of the 661 POWs who came
home from the war. Inside a small glass case is a delicate rosary hand
made by a POW. Above the bookcase, hangs an autographed photograph of
POW and current presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), taken
48 hours after he was released from his cell. Humiston provided McCain
– who didn’t know it existed – with a copy of the photo.

Humiston’s collection of Vietnam POW artifacts extends to his basement,
where he houses military uniforms and an authentic “short size” uniform
worn by a POW who was held in a North Vietnamese camp, among other
items given to him during the last 35 years.

On Nov. 19, Humiston will be one step closer to moving his collection
out of the basement when he expects to sign the lease for the former
electrical building in South Portland’s Mill Creek Park, the site of
his proposed Maine Military Museum and Learning Center.

The South Portland City Council paved the way for Humiston’s museum at
a Sept. 24 workshop. Humiston is currently raising money to renovate
the building and said it will be several months before he is ready to
move in. He said he hopes to be open by warm weather or late spring.

Part of Humiston’s collection is on display at the Nixon Library, the
United States Air Force Academy, two Smithsonian Museums and at the
Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey. He is also working toward
an exhibit on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.

 Now Humiston, a South Portland native, plans to create a “first class museum” at home.

“Once you see it all up in the rooms it will be something beyond what anybody in Maine expects,” Humiston said.

South Portland got a taste of what Humiston is proposing when he
exhibited part of his collection at Old Crow Gallery on Cottage Road.
Gallery co-owner Stephen Popp said the exhibit, which ran for a month
and a half this summer, drew a crowd ranging from veterans to
schoolchildren.

As they walked through the gallery, Popp said people saw the
progression of the war, from the capture of POWs and the conditions of
their cells up to their homecoming and the lives they went on to lead
after their return.

Popp said the exhibit wasn’t political, but rather it was a celebration
of the humanity and the creativity the men possessed even while living
in deplorable conditions.

“These people in the darkest moments were keeping their minds busy through art,” Popp said.

He said it was fascinating to see the drawings, wire sculptures and
notes scribbled in the dark and filthy cells. The exhibit included a
crucifix made out of scrap metal. Popp said it took the POW three years
to make it.

“We all see “Time”, we all see “Life”, we all see the old newsreels,
but we just don’t see that this was actually a person who was trapped
in a cell and through all of that horror these people would create
something,” said Popp.  

Humiston said the museum will not be reserved just for Vietnam
artifacts, but will pay homage to all the men and women who have served
in all branch’s of the military. He plans to rotate the collection
roughly every six months. He estimated he currently has probably 200 to
300 items not related to the Vietnam War.

In his basement, for example, he has a shovel used by soldiers in the
trenches in France during World War I. While setting up a display
during a stop of The Moving Wall Memorial – a replica of the Vietnam
Veterans National Memorial – in Lewiston, Humiston said people started
coming into his tent and giving him various military items. One man
gave him a pewter fork and spoon, dating back to 1863 Gettysburg and
the legendary Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th Maine Infantry.

Humiston’s brother also recently retired from the Army National Guard
and he now has possession of his uniforms from the Gulf War and the
Iraq War.

“If it’s military, I want it,” Humiston said during an interview at the
South Portland insurance agency he runs with his wife, Maureen.

Humiston, an Air Force veteran, began collecting military insignia in the late 1960s.

In 1973, when many of the surviving POWs came home, Humiston received a
phone call from one of the men. A week later, the man sent Humiston
everything that had been in his possession when he walked out of Hanoi.
Since then Humiston estimates he has had contact with some 500 POWs.

“This is not a pro-war museum or an anti-war museum,” Humiston said. “I will display the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Humiston added, however, he will not tell a story of torture, but of the POWs will to survive.

Anyone interested in donating items to the Maine Military Museum and
Learning Center may contact Lee Humiston by calling (207) 650-8651.