On one Wednesday morning, Private First Class Raymond Montelongo and his wife Alma decided to stop into the First Cavalry Division Museum in Fort Hood to see what the hype was about.

According to Raymond, he was in for a surprise in what he found inside.

"I was surprised to see a lot of modern stuff," he said.

In addition to the exhibits dating back to the Civil War, there are also displays which feature the role First Cav. played in the days following the September 11 attacks.

Museum director Steven Draper said collecting the history from some of the more recent events has brought up new challenges.

"We don't deal with paper anymore," he said. "Things are PowerPoint presentations, and digits, and CD-ROMs, and CDs and other electronic forms makes it very, very difficult."

While the advancement in technology may make communication easier in the battlefield, Draper said many times it makes it difficult to put events into context.

"Trying to figure out how a decision was made while many times all we will get is the final PowerPoint presentation," he said.

In addition, the main focus of these commanders and soldiers is often not on preserving day to day information.

"The soldiers are heavily involved in operations, and it's kind of hard to remind them they need to be collecting materials," Draper said.

This is why Draper said he tries to encourage commanders to collect as much as they can and keep daily operational journals.

In the end, Draper said he sees the exhibits as much for the soldiers who have deployed and been a part of making history, as it is for future First Cavalry Division soldiers.

"An individual soldier doesn't get the big picture," he said. "What we try to do is to try to talk about the big picture and how they played a role in that."

The First Cavalry Division museum is free and open to the public.