A few days ago, I blogged out loud about the muddled assumptions. One comment I made was I didn’t think we had faced a situation where we had had a populace with a significant number of citzens who held an allegiance to something above the nation itself. I wrote that before the shooting in Seattle at the Jewish Federation Building, but the behavior of the man who entered the building, using a hostage to get in the door is exactly the mindset that is so troubling:

Amy Wasser-Simpson, the federation’s vice president, told the Seattle Times that Haq got past security at the building and shouted, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,” before he began shooting.

I’ve rethought the issue, and we have had a situation like this before. It began on Dec 7th, 1941, but the outcome is not the same. Back then, the response from the Japanese-American community, was to send forth the 442nd Regimental Combat Team:

On December 7, 1941, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. This act thrust the United States into World War II. All men who were eligible for military duty were called upon to fight, except Japanese Americans. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Japanese American men were catagorized 4C, non-draftable. Moreover, they and their families were placed into concetration camps by the United States Government. However, on February 1, 1943, the government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces and announced the formation of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team.
The 442nd initially consisted of Japanese American volunteers from the mainland United States and the Hawaiian Islands. There were many different reasons why these young men volunteered. Despite the rampant racism towards Japanese Americans during this period, many volunteers felt that if there was to be any future for Japanese in the United States, they had to demonstrate their loyalty by fighting for their country.

The majority of volunteers from Hawaii and the mainland were sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Initially, tension existed between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders. The mainlanders often degraded the Hawaiians for their poor speech and “barbaric” aggressive manners, thus causing them to feel inferior. Due to the excessive fighting and dissension among the troops, the commanding officers were ready to terminate the training. However, a suggestion was made to have the Hawaiians and mainlanders visit relocation camps. After Hawaiian Japanese Americans visited some of the camps, they realized the hardships mainlanders had gone through and a new sense of respect developed for each other. One Japanese American remembers, “the regiment was not formed when we volunteered, nor when we arrived in Camp Shelpby, but rather, it was formed after this (relocation camp) visit” (Matsuo, Boyhood to War. 73)

When this unified unit arrived in Europe, they still had to prove their competence, as well as their loyalty to white soldiers and commanding officers. However, after liberating the small town of Bruyeres in Southern France and rescuing the “Lost Battalion” (141st), Japanese American soldiers gained the respect of their fellow soldiers, the townspeople of Bruyeres, and particularily the members of the “Lost Battalion.” For their performance, the 442nd has been recognized as the most decorated unit in United States history. 18,000 total awards were bestowed upon the 442nd, including 9,500 Purple Hearts, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, Seven Distinguished Unit Citations, but only one Congressional Medal of Honor (Crost, Honor by Fire. 179). Although their impeccable service earned the 442nd the respect of their fellow soldiers, they were not perceived in the same way by American society when they returned to the West Coast.

Immediately following their return, the 442nd realized that the attitudes of many Americans had not changed. World War II veterans of Japanese ancestry were welcomed home by signs that read, “No Japs Allowed,” and “No Japs Wanted.” In many cases, veterans were denied service in local shops and restaurants, and their homes and property were often vandalized or set on fire.

Joe Byrne
Kyle Higuchi
Jason Opdyke
Mario Sani

Notice the mentality shift. In 1941, those oj Japanese descent felt they owned it to their new nation, and the rest of the citizens, to demonstrated in a courageous manner, their loyalty. Their nickname: “Go For Broke.” we know what that means and that’s how they fought, becoming the most decorated regiment in the US Army.

Get a load of this:

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service, in the entire history of the U.S. Military. The 4,000 men who initially came in April 1943 had to be replaced nearly 3.5 times. In total, about 14,000 men served, ultimately earning 9,486 Purple Hearts , 21 Medals of Honor and an unprecedented eight Presidential Unit Citations.

Anyone who questions service like that has lived in a hole their entire lives. They, like the units comprised of African-Americans, such as the USS MASON (DE-529) and the 761st Tank Battalion, were accepted at the front lines as fighting men, equal to the challenge of combat.

The situation of the day, vs the time of the reloaction camps of the 1940’s are opposite in how communities of non-native Americans handled the decision of loyalty.

I also think, having found the very consise history of the 442nd I quoted above, that is it interesting to observe how the rest of the population reacted. Once again, it is from oppostie ends of the spectrum: At the end of the war, the Japanese-Americans (and African-Americans) who stepped up to the plate and shed their blood for “the Man,” suffered cruelty and assaults from those who they had defended. In this day, while the Muslim-Americans don’t stand and proclaim their alliegance to the nation that affords them freedom, and, most notable, does not relocate them into camps, which conficating their money, personal property and businesses to divide between the Americans in their communities, we also go out of our way to make sure no one is offended by the words in print or on TV, nor any action taken by law enforcement that might be looked upon as “profiling.”

One group showed us they were with us, while the military members from the land of their ancestors, pilaged, raped and murdered their way across China and the Pacific Islands and Rim before cannibalizing our aviators at Chi Chi Jima.

Today, those who have come to us from the Islamic countries openly condem us when we discuss taking action to secure the freedom of all of our citizens, to include them. It’s a world upside down.

To the men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, I salute you and the legacy you gave your new nation. To the Islamic-Americans, I challenge you to read their history and decide your response.

Update 8/01/2006: CDR Salamander has a post regarding this topic…

A few months ago, I finally decided the blog needed to “grow up.”

Summary: Do your homework, and pick a place to host your blog and DON’T MOVE! It’s worse than changing email addresses!

Details for those without much to do:

I paid for a doamain and left the free service of Blogger. I yeaned for the improvements I saw in WordPress. I began a blog at WordPress (also free), and decided it would give me some additional capabilities to separate posts by self-defined categories, but, I was concerend that there may be control issues down the line, so I went to a paid for domain. I got a great deal, they offered WordPress blogging software and away I went.

Things wnet smoothly on setting up the blog, but….then I figured all the other sites who linked with me would need to be updated. The challenge: What blogs were they?

I left the old blog intact, for history, and many of the obvious links from other places would come there. I also could check at Technorati to see where the inbound links originated. There were quite a few. I began the emailing to the bigger ones, at first, requesting that the next time they were doing link maintenance to check and please update my blog’s address. Some did, some did not. You know, like asking all your family to update your email links in Outlook….’nuff siad.

One issue is not all links are actually direct links from those blogs and I embarassed myself once (but found a great blog….) when I sent an email and I wasn’t on the owner’s blogroll. So, scratching my head, I realized I had been linked from their blog because, they, as I, had signed up for like minded weblog groups, and their site now linked back to the master list at some other website….

So….I sent a few emails to the owners of the groups, asking for updates….not one of those have been changed. Well, looking at the Sitemeter for the original blog, not many people went there anyhow, but a few popped in from that source….

Now, several months later, the old blog does get hit, and, depsite putting a large banner in the header saying the site has moved and a link to the new blog, it just isn’t too successful.

There is another issue, and I’m sure it’s assocoatied with WordPress somehow: I used to generate a lot (well, ok, most all) of my traffic by taking advantage of the Open Posts at Mudville Gazette. I did this before using HaloScan by sending manual trackbacks. It was great for the ego, seeing people “show up” and better when the meter logged them in for more than 0 seconds. Now, despite following the directions for WordPress for trackbacks, my posts don’t show up at Mudville Gazette, and even trying standalone trackback programs, I still get an error message back. The strange thing is the inclusion of links for many, but not all other sites have worked. I’m still wondering about this (any hints would be good. Email or comments are welcomed!).

So, as I was trending upwards in readership, which gave me a sense of accomplishment, I’ve dropped off to about 1/2 the hits a month on the new blog. I still have a significant amount of hits on the old site, but combined, I’m still not where I used to be.

Anyhow, that’s my sad tale. If you’re not blogging yet, I hope this helps you in making some decisions about planning your first steps into the blogosphere more successful in the long run.

It’s a day late, but BMCM(MDV) Carl M. Brashear, USN (Ret), is worth a few moments.

*****
Update 07/31/2006: Neptunus Lex has posted a report of BMCM(MDV) Brashear’s funeral.

Link to the Navy News article on the funeral.

Update 08/03/2006: Military.com’s discussions on the article they have about Master Chief’s funeral. A few people who commented served with, or met the Master Chief.
*****

I can’t comment on his life, other than I heard of him when I was commissioned. He was the legend we know of by then. He passed away Tuesday. I Would like to take you a little way into the world Carl Brashear worked in, so you might appreciate, all the more, what a heroic man he was

This is the insignia Boatswain’s Mate Master Chief Brashear wore. It is silver anodized in color, not to be mistaken as the Diving Officer’s insignia that is gold. The MDV insignia is far more prestegious. A master diver has come through all the salvage diving training, and is also a supervisor, not just someone who has been a SCUBA diver, 2nd and 1st Class diver, but also a Saturation diver. Along the way, the Master Diver will have learned an incredible amount of diving medicine to augment the skills gained as a salvor. The Master Diver is the real person in charge of the technical work on a dive. The Diving Officer present, is the one responsible for the work.

Until sometime in the 80’s, the Navy used the MK V diving gear to make salvage dives. Carl Brashear, missing one leg, dove in this equipment through out his Naval career. I spent two months in the salavge officer pipeline at the beginning of my time in the Navy, but found out it wasn’t my calling.

I mde my first indoc dive in one of these in Jan 77 at NAB Little Creek. I followed that one dive (which was a check off item to be able to go to diving school) with three weeks of MK V dives at Anacostia Naval Shipyard, Washington, DC, beginning in February 77. I recall the data like it was yesterday:

Rubberized cotton suit: 18#
Spun copper helmet and breastplate: 54#
Boots: 38#
Weight belt: 98#
Total: 210#

Do the math. Except for the weight of the boots, most all of that is positioned above the knees, where Master Chief has his amputation. So take the 40# off the 210# total and do walk around a rolling, heaving deck, getting to the water, and coming out. It is work, without a handicap of a stump scrapping in a prosthesis.

My diving officer training wouldn’t have included saturation diving, which BMCM Brashear may have also been qualified. I can’t recall it exactly, but it seems the extra equipment, part of which is the cannister of CO2 scrubbing chemicals attached to the back of the helmet that took the total weight of the suited up diver up 300 lbs.

It is a physically demanding duty to be a salvage diver, but these days, they have markedly improved equipment, and are now using the MK 12 rigs, witch can be used for several types of diving.

So there’s a little history to help you connect with the persistnet spirit that we know as BMCM(MDV) Carl Brashear.

Oh, and if you have one of these laying around you don’t want, send me an email…I’ll gladly pay the shipping!

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!

After reading “No Higher Honor,” I found Brad Peniston had written another book, “Around the World with the US Navy.”

Published in 1999, the book is a travelog of just about every Navy community, short the SEABEES and the SEALS. Brad spent about 2 years covering the story, with a period in the summer of 1998 where he and his crew spend about 2 months observing the world of Navy units, traveling between Navy commands, ashore, afloat and in the air. The meat of the book are the statements made of the sailors and officers in a Navy that was seeing the shortages that came as a result of the rapid drawdowns when it was clear the Cold War had ended.

The beauty of this read is the straight forward, no nonsense descriptions of life in the Navy, with Brad’s added talent to paint a word picture of the living envirnment, physically and emotionally. from boot Seamen to senior admirals, Brad captured wonderfully illuminating insights, as well as the detail of life at sea, in the air, or under the waves.

I recognized several names of former ship and schoolmates, and found out some of the performance of Admiral Boorda’s Smart Ship Program, which I managed to sit in a meeting to get my command a seat at the table in the very beginnings of the USS YORKTOWN’s recreation.

Even with my interaction with some of the communities mentioned, which included the Special Boat Units and the VR Naval Air Logistics Operations (NALO) units, I gained a greater understanding of some of the non-Surface Warfare related communities.

Maybe it’s time for Book II of the series, with Brad and his photgraphers heading out again to sample the fleet in the wake of the major strikes conducted in support of OIF and OEF.

If you would like to get a detailed glimpse of what it’s like to be a sialor maintianing a carrier’s arresting gear, on being on a Visit Boarding & Search crew, or life beneatht he waves as you sit in the control room and dive the “boat” upon clearing the shallow water, or if you always wondered what a P-3C Orion crew did, thinking they were just there for the per diem check, this is the book for you.

From a historical perspective, it’s a documentary of the strains on the manpower of the Navy during some difficult years and worth hearing what real operators had to say about the work they did to keep things going.

Maybe you’ll find some of your old shipmates in there, too.

H/T to Chapomatic again. He links to Tigerhawks’ blog, where the entire speech made by Senator Santorum (R-PA) lays out what this war is all about.

Like most Americans we are more concerned about the future of our country. Now most of you would expect me to now launch into my often written about rants about the culture, the family, and children. Not today. No today the biggest issue facing our children’s future is a war. Not, as so many describe it, the War on Terror. Not the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the world war, which at its heart is just like the previous three global struggles.

In those wars we fought against European tyrants and their allies, from the Kaiser to Hitler to Lenin, Stalin, and their heirs. We fought them because we knew that our survival was at stake. The tyrants would never stop attacking us until they had defeated us, or we had defeated them. Our only choices – choices imposed on us, not chosen by us – were either winning or losing, because there was no way out.

We are in the same kind of conflict today. We are not fighting a War on Terror anymore than we fought a war on blitzkrieg in World War II. Terror like blitzkrieg is a tactic used by our enemy, not the enemy itself. We are fighting against Islamic fascists. They attacked us on September 11th because we are the greatest obstacle to their openly declared mission of subjecting the entire world to their fanatical rule. I believe that the threat of Islamic fascism is just as menacing as the threat from German Nazism and Soviet Communism. Now, as then, we face fanatics who will stop at nothing to dominate us. Now, as then, there is no way out; we will either win or lose.

It’s a long read, but it brings clarity to the situation, and in fact, the last week, I have been mulling over the fact that the war being waged against the western world is garbed in a religious wrapping, yet, if a nation and it’s allies would say “We’re going to conquer you!” there would be little ambuiguity in our thoughts as to what that meant to our national survival. In fact, we didn’t have any problem seeing the Communist threat for what it was. Some of my beginnings on this thought process are here.

I’m sure Mohammed didn’t forsee the freedom of religious expression right being written into our Constitution a millenium beyond his life, but, it now causes many to stop and wonder just how can we judge this “religion.” I submit it is not a religion, but more a poitical power, with religious leadership, and unlike anything we have encountered.

Yes, we have seen guerilla warfare and began our own history with it, but the allegiance to the nation came quickly. It isn’t uncommon for Muslim-Americans calling radio talk shows, when questioned as to what they would do in the event of a fatwa declared to bring down the US, for them to either respond with a question back to the host (such as one did Friday afternoon to Michael Meved) as to where their loyalties would be…The Muslims seem to either refuse to answer the question, or they hesitate and never repond in a manner that you would understand a definite postition on their part. I take from their response, they would not take the approach to defend the US.

As Senator Santorum points out, it is many nations, all claiming a state religion of Islam, who all have publically stated they are out for our defeat. This is just like the Axis powers, but the added factor is not just small bands of guerillas conducting sabotage, as did Nazis landed from submarines, but western nations with massive populations of Muslims, who regularly demonstrate against the country of their citizenship. France has about 3M Muslims, as one example. England has many. Each nation, as with ours, have Imams who openly speak about destruction of the very nations they inhabit. During the riots when hundreds of cars were burned, imagine the internal strife if those same people had been supplied with arms and told to rise up against their adopted homelands?

We’re in for a long haul, and education will be a weapon that will serve the world well….

I picked up this link to Mahmood’s Den blog from Chapomatic, who’s broad reach provides many interesting links, and his own excellent commentary and analysis, when he (Chap) gets rolling.

Here is the point, from near the end of Mahmood’s post that I think is particularly notable:

Regarding the deafening Arab silence in condemning Israel, I think it demonstrates several important factors:

[…]

5. Nothing, absolutely nothing demonstrates the tribalism of Arabs more than wars and conflicts, even on a micro level, let alone this “huge” conflict we have on our hands now. These events crystalizes positions – unfortunately – without much thought beyond the family, tribe, sect, country. The brain ceases to function beyond those things, and of course logic has left the building quite a while ago, and if – and that’s a big if – one declares a position slightly out of those drawn and accepted lines, then that person is immediately vilified, attacked verbally and possibly physically, labeled a traitor and a sell-out, and ostracized. A lot of these people who do question accepted norms more often than not answer with their lives.

Violence, you see, is something that is built into our psyche as Arabs, if the situation does not yet demand the use of fists, then at least the floor belongs to that person who shouts loudest. [CSA emphasis added] Most definitely not to that person who is trying to reason and look at alternate points of view to arrive at a conclusive solution.

It is this trait, I think, more than any other that has succeeded for centuries in cowing us, in forcing us to happily accept tyrants, and has allowed us to regress rather than progress. And we really have only ourselves to blame.

One of my friend Mohammed’s conclusions is that this situation will breed more terrorists. Mohammed I agree with you; this will most certainly rub some passions raw and someone will take it upon themselves to “avenge” the Arab honour. After all, Hizballah’s birth was another Israeli incursion into Lebanon, Al-Qa’idah’s birth was the mountains of Afghanistan in response to Soviet intervention, Zarqawi et al is the result of the American insurrection in Iraq, so it is safe to assume that this conflict too will give birth to some more “freedom fighters” who will continue to perpetuate and wreak havoc in the world.

By the same token, and in the continued absence of proper educational systems in the Arab and Muslim worlds [CSA emphasis], one that values critical thinking rather than learning by rote, there is no doubt in my mind, that someone, somewhere, out of 250 millions of my Arab brothers and sisters, and the more than 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, will have read part of this post and have already decided that I too, should be ostracized for my views… Simply for asking the “wrong” questions.

So…what does Plato have to do with this?

“Man, as we say, is a tame and civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly creature.” – Plato

I do believe there may be a connection between studying a single set of writings as the sum total of wisdom and the outcome discussed above by Mahmood.

With the Middle East issues coming to blows, and the Naval Academy courts-martialing a Midshipman, I’m thinking it’s time to sort through our box of paradigms and toss out the old ones, and then get the new ones, which, more than likely will cost us some amount of effort, but…I think it’s necessary.

In a microcosm, the current Israeli-Hizbollah-Lebanon conflict provides a model of a new form of warfare. It’s not that other hadn’t thought of this, but it’s more that Hizbollah is showing you can run a military force (in conventional terms), without the overhead. Think about it: No uniforms to issue, then have to haggle with some lobbyists from the textile industry every few years and have to buy everyone (or cause them to buy) new stuff to wear. As far as base infrastructure, if you’re using someone’s house, they are paying the utility bills and doing the routine upkeep. You may have to help out if you plan to dig a tunnel through the area, but…it’s still on the cheap.

Like the VC, they stash weapons and ammo around, in a warehouse here, a home there, maybe hit up the local imam to use the utility room at the mosque, too. From a soldiers point of view, it’s not like they have to memorize their weapon serial number and have to account for it. In this case, the loss of capital assets has to be a bigger expense than the US Congress would allow, on a percentage basis…anyhow, Hizbollah is the proxy for Iran, which helps out on costs for the Iranians. I’m sure they aren’t putting money aside for their retirement.

Confusing…but, not if you think about it for a while. It does require that we (the rest of the world) re-look at international law and the (recently much misunderstood) Geneva Conventions. For that matter, I think the SCOTUS staff anf leadership need some serious back to school work about what constitutes a “treaty,” particularly in the INternational arean. It seems like not all that long ago, several of them thought using foreign law would be good for the us (another reason the re-evaluate how you think about the seating of judges), yet they seem to have completely missed the point on International Law.

Anyhow…and what about midshipman? Well, CDR Salamander has the lead, but a blog, The Countervailing Force, he found has blow by blow reports of the Courts-martial of Lamar Owens. Sick at the core. The woman gets immunity and spills her guts about a long list of behaviors, any ONE of which would roast you and your career as a Naval Officer, and the male is headed for possibly a Conduct Unbecoming and Officer charge, which….also gets you the boot from the officer corps. It appears when she said “no” after she had asked him to “come on down,” he did the right thing: He got up and left. So…picture a career down the tubes for two people raging hormones, which has come to be acceptable behavior in about every venue of civilian and military life, but one party took the directions and left, but the other party may still assume the office of the leader of young men and women in the Marine Corps.

It reminds me about a line from “Ghost Busters” about dogs lying down with cats, etc, etc, etc…

While reviewing the new offerings at Borders, there was one there that caught my eye:

Wow…I guess the living organism concept (oh, yes promoted by this author in his earlier writings) makes one think Mother Earth is really pissed at all of us, swarming like ticks on a dog, and is going to give us a good whopping to make sure we know how mad she is.

Igneous and sedimentary rock formations can now think…

And this in what one reviewer says:

“In his latest book James Lovelock reviews the history of his theory of Gaia and describes the terrible difficulties Gaia will undergo if the Earth continues to heat up. Can Gaia continue to manage the planet with Man, a loose cannon on the deck, releasing carbon dioxide at the rate we do?” – John F. Brinkman from Toronto, Canada

Dunno, I guess we should all see if the Jim Jones Kool-Aid recipe is still available and begin the systematic removal of the most dangerous critter from the planet.

It baffles me that someone who can make complete sentences can ignore such simple truths at the existence of big, and really, really hot floating nuclear power plants in the universe, not to mention the laws of thermodynamics that show that temperatures change from time to time, for those reasons and not because I drove my car to work today.

The Defense Link website, run by DoD, profiles the Valour-IT Project!

There’s a picture of one of the service members who have benefited from your contributions.

BZ, as we say in the Navy, to any and all who help with this project

PS: Donations are welcome and appreciated any time of the year!

Over the weekend of the 4^th of July, I was on the road and finally found time to stop and visit the museum for the Mighty 8^th Air Force. It’s right there on the side of I-95, just south of Savannah, GA, featuring a B-47 static display next to the interstate. I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but, the interior of the building did have some things I hadn’t seen at an air museum before.

The museum starts you out with a little walk through the history leading up to WWII, with some history of the rise of German power, and the attack at Pearl harbor. From there, it’s a lot of info on the planes and men who became the 8^th Air Force, stationed in the British Isles. I did note that the aircraft types memorialized were almost exclusively bomber or fighter models, with nothing discussing the logistical planes, which, after checking with my friend Jim, indeed discovered the C-47s and gliders of the troop carrying groups all were in the chain of command. Savannah is the appropriate place for the museum, for, as I found out on my excursion, it was the place where the unit was established in 1942.

Be that as it may, the museum is still a worthwhile side trip, if you’re traveling the East Coast. Here’s what was in the central gallery display area, which took me by surprise:

Yep, a real war trophy, the venerable ME-163B “Komet” rocket fighter! Armed with 30mm cannons, they launched this thing vertically (or horizontally with a drop away set of wheels), it then got above the bomber formations, swooped down through them in a high speed, gravity assisted glide, before it landed, sometimes blowing up when it hit the runway, due to the use of hydrogen peroxide as the fuel for the rocket motor.

Here’s a picture of the business end of this interesting piece of history:

There were displays galore, and several movie theaters looping historical films. Displays included a POW Camp barracks, forged documents from the escape and evasion efforts, aviation art, log books, etc, etc…the kinds of things you’d expect. As you near the end of the displays, there is the nose section of a MiG-21, with a walk up platform, so you can get a good view of the cockpit. One memorable display was a painting of a ME-109 escorting a battle damaged B-17. The story was the fighter swooped in to strike, and could see several of the crew being treated by others, so he flew alongside the bomber. It wasn’t until about 30 some years later, the German pilot discussed his moment of compassion, and he was able to meet some of the crewmen of the B-17 he declined to shoot down.

Here are some of the other displays:

The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine made famous for its use in the Spitfire and the later Mustangs. I came to know the sound of this Rolls-Royce/V1650 mill when it powered the Unlimited Class hydroplanes in the early ’60s. If you’re not familiar with that water sport, they were doing 200+ mph with the WWII fighter engines when I was in grade school and now they do 200 plus a little with helicopter turbines, just without the studly roar of the 12 cylinders hammering away.

There was also a Cyclone engine on a stand. The powerplant of the B-17s and B-24s:

A real P-51D hung proudly on the tail of an ME-109:

They had a PT-17 Steerman, a scale P-47 and the nose section of a B-24 Liberator in the center gallery. They also had the two waist gunner stations from a B-17, set up with an aerial gunnery simulator, where you could wield a real M2 Browning against FW-190s and ME-109s coming from various attack angles.

Static display outside included the B-47 Stratojet, a MiG-17 “FRESCO”

and one of the longest serving aircraft with the US Armed Forces, the F-4 Phantom:

So, there’s my vacation travel report.