The museum is named in honor of Cpl. Larry Eugene Smedley, who was born on March 4, 1949 in Front Royal Virginia. He attended Howard Junior High School in Union Park, Florida, leaving in 1964.He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on March 18, 1966 in Orlando, Florida. In July 1967, LCpl. Smedley arrived in the Republic of Vietnam. He was assigned duty as a rifleman and squad radio man with Company D, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, and was promoted to Corporal on September 1, 1967. On December 21, 1967 Cpl. Smedley was killed action in Quang Nam Province and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously.

The purpose of this Museum is to organize, foster and perpetuate a medium for information and education. Through our impressive collection of artifacts, mementos, equipment and static displays, we aim to project to the general public the role the military played, the conditions that prevailed and the impact of the Vietnam War and subsequent wars on both the military member and society in general.

Our Museum is proud to honor the men, women, and their families who served and continue to serve this country in times of war and in peace. Men and women like them continue to make this country the great nation it is today and we thank each and every one for the roles they play and the sacrifices they make.

The museum is here to provide assistance to all Veterans in their readjustment to life in the civilian community.

To those who served in Vietnam and in every war since - this museum is your legacy for the world to see. We are just the "Caretakers".

We would like to say to all our brothers and sisters who served this great nation in Vietnam and in all subsequent wars, "WELCOME HOME".

The museum has a three-fold mission:

First, to organize, foster and perpetuate awareness, information and education on the role the military played, the conditions that prevailed and the impact of the Vietnam War and subsequent wars on both the military member and society in general.

Second, to provide assistance and support to all Veterans during their readjustment to civilian life.

Third, to honor the men, women, and their families who served and continue to serve this country in times of war and in peace.

The Corporal Larry E. Smedley National Vietnam War Museum, Inc., (formerly known as the National Vietnam Veterans War Museum) established in 2000, is a Central Florida non-profit museum, owned and operated by the Vietnam and All Veterans of Central Florida, Inc. also a non-profit organization in Central Florida, founded in 1982. This organization also assists the servicemen and women of all wars and branches of military service. While formerly an organization of Vietnam War Era members, the VAVCF welcomes all who have served with the Armed Forces of the United States.

Recognizing that the tragedy of the war in southeast Asia has become comfortably distant in the minds of many Americans, this organization has embarked on a very ambitious undertaking building a war museum that will bring the people and events of this bitter, divisive conflict to life, so that current and future generations of Americans remember the Vietnam Veterans legacy of service, sacrifice and valor. The museum is dedicated to all Americans, from local schools and youth organizations to soldiers currently defending our great nation, in the hope that everyone passing through the gates will leave with a better understanding of past and present military conflicts.

The National Vietnam War Museum includes the first monument in the state of Florida dedicated to fallen Vietnam War Veterans, with 167 names of men and women from Orange County, Florida. Other static displays consist of a U. S. Navy Patrol Boat River (PBR), also known as "River Rat", a Douglas A-4B Sky Hawk aircraft that is currently on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, and a Bell UH-1 (Huey) Dustoff helicopter. The existing museum center includes numerous artifacts from the Vietnam era, a room-size, to scale, firebase re-creation that took approximately eleven years to complete, and a recently remodeled educational media/research room with enhanced audiovisual capabilities.