I Have Been To.....The National Museum of the United States Army

 Every level of Professional Military Education in the US Army is supposed to incorporate some formal instruction or application of Military History. This is designed to give Soldiers a better understanding of our military past, create and foster esprit de corps, and provide context for where we are today. 

This past Friday, my course visited the National Museum of the US Army at Fort Belvoir, which is near Lorton in Northern VA. 

The museum is about two hours north of where we are training, but we were permitted to drive our own cars, rather than be schlepped about on a Government bus. Yay me! We also wore casual clothes for our outing, rather than the pickle suit. 

Our timed tickets were for 9AM. We met up in a nearly empty parking lot and this is what we saw...

It's big. Really big. It's shiny. It's....literally in the middle of nowhere... I'm not sure what the thought process was in the location and the architecture, but it sure didn't make me hopeful on what we'd find inside. Especially since the Army Heritage Center in Carlisle, PA is bonkers good. 

The campaign wall is the first thing you see once you enter and go through security.... It's a big bright airy open space where they have several helpful docents who give you a very good run down on how things are organized, where the galleries are, and most importantly after a two hour drive....where the washrooms are located. 

There are several galleries dedicated to different periods in the Army's history, spanning from the Colonial Era to today. The second floor gallery was in the process of being updated to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, but the rest of the facility was open. There was also a gallery called "Army and Society" that shows the inter-relationship between the Army, government, and the American people. I did not have time to see that one, before we had a schedule group activity. 

So... what did I see...

You enter the galleries to the left of the foyer. As you approach them, there are several monoliths with pictures of American Soldiers and briefly telling their stories. The stories were from all over history. 

For instance... Joyce Kilmer.

Famous for his poem, "Trees", SGT Kilmer served in the 165th Infantry in the 42nd Division on the Western Front, where he was killed. 

After passing though these pillars, you are encouraged to go from left to right and within the galleries, in a clockwise direction. With the ever-present docents there to guide you and answer questions. 

The first thing I saw when I passed through the pillars was... 

 The good old-fashioned reliable Army mule. The last two mule units, a Transportation Corps pack train and an Artillery battery were not disbanded until 1956. Today, the Special Operations folks retain a pack animal capability using the same manuals and similar equipment you see here. 

I then went to my favourite periods, the Colonial Era and the American Civil War. 

The above flag is a Marker Flag from Webb's Additional Continental Regiment. There was also an amazing diorama of Henry Knox moving the guns from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the dead of a New England winter to reinforce George Washington's Army of Observation. I was unable to determine the scale, but it looks 1/72nd-ish... 

There were presentations of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, as well. The number and choice of artefacts presented was very good. Excellent representation on "what the common soldier carried" balanced with pieces that had an interesting history or were from a historical personage, like Josiah Harmar's sword. 

As I walked into the American Civil War gallery, I was greeted by...

This 12# Napoleon belonged to Battery G, 4th US Artillery and served on Culp's Hill at the Battle of Gettysburg. There was an overwhelming amount of material culture represented here and I did my best to limit how many pictures I took. 

The two flags I did want to post, though, since the National Colours belonged to the 12th Corps D'Afrique, later the 84th US Colored Troops and the bottom picture are the Regimental Colours of the 13th United States Infantry, who served in the Western Theater of the Civil War. The grey areas on the flag are where the backing can be seen through holes that had been shot out of the flag or where there was some other kind of damage from service. 

Moving on from there to the WW1 gallery, you saw a full size diorama, which reminded me of the WW1 Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. 

There was also a FT-17 tank off to the right of the diorama. 

Finally, there were loads of photos of Soldiers along a couple of panels and one stood out for me for personal reasons. 

I was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and CPT Paul Kittredge was a resident of Lowell who went overseas with the 26th (Yankee) Division in WW1 and was killed in action in late October 1918. Kittredge Park in Lowell is named after him. I never knew that until I visited this museum. 

Moving onto the WW2 gallery one of the first things you notice is a large number of B17 models overheard. They put this up as a display of what a box bombardment by a group of bombers would look like. 

They also have the M4 Sherman tank "Cobra King", which was famous as being the first tank into Bastogne to relieve the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of the Bulge. 

Again, trying to bring the common Soldier to the front, they have amongst the displays, Charles Schultz, the quiet shy kid from Minnesota who became a world-famous cartoonist and who served in 1945 with the 20th Armored Division and helped liberate Dachau. 

All around the gallery were reproductions of the various posters seen during WW2. 

Finally, in the Pacific Theater gallery was a small display that I found very moving. Two fragments of flags. The one on the left was from a piece found on Corregidor after it was recaptured from the Japanese. It's from a Coast Artillery Regiment's flag that was destroyed to prevent it from being taken as a trophy. The fragment on the left, is from a US flag that flew at Hickam Army Airfield on the 7th of December 1941. 

The next galleries were about the Cold War and going up to the Army of today. 

The first picture is still something I see and why I have a job as a Warrant Officer.... If I never see another container stuffed with duffle bags after I retire, it'll still be too soon. 

Overall, the experience was wonderful. I have no idea what the cost for a ticket was, as the trip was organized by our Small Group Instructor. I'm sure it was covered by the Schoolhouse, since it was on our POI as a block of instruction. 

The exhibits are worth seeing. The presentation is excellent. There are VR simulators if you want to drive a tank or fly a helicopter. I decided to pass on those experiences. The gift shop is okay. I was hoping for a better selection of books. They did have Hickey's history of the War of 1812, which I recommended to my classmates. 

As we left, I did take one more picture. There are plaques along the walkways to honour units or corps in their connection to the US Army. This seems to be a fairly new display, as there were only a few dozen. 

For the Warrant Officer Corps, we are

The Quiet Professionals...