The Intrepid Museum's Remarkable History and Mission to Honor Veterans

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, it’s Veterans Day. Well, Veterans Week. And with us today is Ken Fisher. And he’s the co-chairman and the board of trustees of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, among other things. Well, Ken, it’s Veterans Day week. We have Veterans Day on the 11th.

0:22 And so many things are happening today. tell us about the Intrepid. I mean, it’s such a phenomenal boat. I love going on that boat, whether it’s for dinners, whether it’s bringing my friends over to see all the beautiful airplanes on it. And give us an update.

0:44 Speaker 2 Well, you know, Fisher House and the Intrepid are kind of linked together. The Intrepid was founded by my late uncle, Zach Fisher, when it was brought to his attention that this ship that it served you know, in three wars, was going to be decommissioned and sold to scrap. And Zach thought that this was a piece of history that

1:05 needed to be preserved. So working with the Navy and using his own money, he brought the Intrepid to New York, working with Ed Koch, put it at Pier 86 on the west side, And it serves today as an air, sea, and space museum that welcomes over a million visitors a year.

1:28 Speaker 1 A million visitors a year. That is phenomenal. That is so wonderful. And you take a piece of history, and you preserve it, and people love it. And the name, the Intrepid Museum, it’s like a household name now.

1:46 Speaker 2 Well, you know, I’ll tell you, it is part of what I call the freedom triangle. It’s, you know, the ship that bore the sacrifices so the other lady in the harbor could hold the torch. The Intrepid lost 250 brave sailors either on her decks or in the skies above and played such a pivotal role in the war

2:11 in the Pacific. It’s... survived five kamikaze attacks, two torpedo hits, and still served. They called her the ghost ship. And today she sits in the harbor and, you know, it’s a monument to sacrifice and service and selfless service of those who serve this nation so bravely. And, you know, that’s the mission of the Intrepid is to honor that

2:40 service and sacrifice.

2:43 Speaker 1 You guys maintain it, I mean, impeccable. Now, I remember the last time I was there a few months ago. Tell all, you know, there’s possibly millions of people listening to this. You had the Concorde up there. What else?

3:02 Speaker 2 We have the Growler, which was one of the first missile submarines built. Missile-carrying submarines. We have the Concorde, which made the fastest transatlantic crossing. I think it was two hours and 59 minutes. We’ve got the Space Shuttle Enterprise, which was the prototype. The Enterprise didn’t fly in space, but the Enterprise proved that the ship could glide and

3:32 could land. And we’ve got... The X-12, we’ve got some amazing aircraft, and it’s an experience that I hope that every New Yorker can have at some point.

3:50 Speaker 1 Whenever I took my kids there, their mouths were left open saying, wow. It’s what you call a wow experience.

4:02 Speaker 2 Well, that’s what we want. We want people to come on and say, wow. But, you know, we’ve got some work ahead of us. We’re right now incorporating technology into it so that one day we can put you inside of a battle, give you an idea of what it was like to serve on this ship. We just opened

4:23 the sick bay. We continue to open, you know, new parts of the ship. so that every time somebody comes on the ship, it’s a new experience, but an experience that I want every New Yorker to have because, again, that ship is a monument to the sacrifices that so many of our brave men and women have made and

4:44 their families as well.

4:46 Speaker 1 And your uncle, Zachary Fisher, not only do the intrepid, I was there with him when we did the, at Camp David, we built the chapels. And Camp David never had a chapel before.

5:01 Speaker 2 Yeah, that’s something that Zach was very proud of. You know, Zach was a patriot in every sense of the word. And, you know, after he had done the Intrepid, he founded Fisher House Foundation, which today we build comfort homes for families of our wounded, sick or injured to stay in at no charge for as long as their loved one’s

5:24 hospital stay dictates. To date, we’ve now opened over 100 Fisher Houses. We’ve helped 570,000 families save almost $ 700 million in travel and lodging. So the Intrepid was the spearhead, but out of the Intrepid came so many other initiatives that our family is so proud of because we’re making such a difference in the lives of these men and

5:49 women and their families.

5:53 Speaker 1 Ken Fisher, thank you for everything your family does. And I hope you have a great week visiting with all the veterans and visiting with all the Medal of Honor recipients. And I look forward to running into you. And God bless America. Thank you so much.

6:10 Speaker 2 I look forward to it. Thanks for having me, John. Thank you.