Military museums make you feel enlisted
Military museums allow visitors to experience the rough and tumble jerk of a parachute jump or the barked orders of an Army drill sergeant.
Whether you are a hardened military veteran or one who's never worn a uniform, military museums in the Carolinas offer extensive lessons in military service.
In Fayetteville, N.C., the soaring Airborne & Special Operations Museum attracts between 120,000 and 175,000 visitors a year and tells the story of how America's military developed the strategy of dropping fully armed soldiers into battle from the skies. A 15-foot sculpture of the paratrooper dubbed "Iron Mike" stands guard at its glass-and-girder front entry, which evokes both the 250-foot "jump towers" that paratroopers use to train and the wingspan of the C-47 aircraft that dropped soldiers onto battlefields in World War II.
As soon as you enter the museum, you spot a World War II-era paratrooper in combat gear floating out of the sky under a yellow 28-foot-wide parachute. Behind him, another model drops from the heavens, a modern Army Ranger buoyed by a light green, honeycombed parachute used by U.S. Special Forces.
A wild ride can be had in the museum's 24-seat platform motion simulator ($4), re-creating the bumps and jumps of parachute drops and rides in military vehicles.
To highlight some of the major events of wartime paratroopers, visitors first stroll through a re-created village in Normandy. Recordings from the June 1944 Allied invasion to liberate France from Nazi Germany put visitors in the heat of the battle, with rockets and bullets screeching by. Overhead, a C-47 "Skytrain" aircraft hovers with a U.S. Army paratrooper poised to jump out an open door.
Walkways are papered with still photos, videos and murals that show the history behind U.S. forces that evolved into the famed Special Operations units, designated to take on unconventional warfare and special missions in foreign lands.
Admission is free (910-643-2766, asomf.org).
The latest addition to the Army's military museums is the Army's Basic Training Combat Museum at Fort Jackson, in Columbia, S.C., which reopened in July after a two-year renovation.
More than 60,000 male and female soldiers graduate every year from basic training at Fort Jackson, which is the Army's largest training site. The museum offers guests and family members a taste of their soldiers' grueling 10 weeks of indoctrination and combat training.
"The museum boasts a number of high-speed exhibits that zoom in directly on how civilians are turned into soldiers, interwoven with Fort Jackson's past," said the two-star general in charge of the post, Maj. Gen. James Milano.
Visitors may be startled by drill sergeants who appear in holographic images bellowing commands, allowing them to "feel as if he or she has enlisted in the Army and is standing there in their Army Combat Uniform," Milano says.
Check out a fully loaded duffel bag, or try to lift and shoot an Army rifle. Listen as soldiers march by and learn some of the drill sergeants' cadence calls that keep soldiers sharp and in step. The museum is open weekdays and admission is free. Details at 803-751-7419.
