Wednesday 12/29/21 Still at Erick's house in Columbus, GA

Rain Rain Go Away and the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center for today.

So Erick and Judith live in a tract which must have been on the site of a former plantation.  Welcome to the South apparently.  Anyway, the day was all about rain.  So, with nothing else scheduled Eldon decided he wanted to go to the Infantry Museum, because that is what he does.

The War on Terror exhibit just opened this year.  It is eerie how lifelike these sculptures are, and even more so when it is totally silent out there.  This guy won the Medal of Honor, but ... died in the doing.

It was hard to photograph, almost like the designer wanted it that way because every time you moved to take a photo something else was excluded.  The names are of those soldiers who lost their lives protecting us.  That is extremely moving.  

This is a 75% replica of the Vietnam Memorial, and very (very) hard to walk past without a shiver.

The museum covers everything from the Revolutionary War to the present Afghan / Iraq wars.  Seriously, it is very impressive.  This is just the outside part because photos are discouraged inside, but it is intense in there as well.  Eldon could have spent days there, but Moreno and I were stuck in the car because it was pouring rain and Moreno was not doing well with the thunder and lightening. 

This is Erick's base, and we are very very proud of him.  He is definitely world class.

This is the statue at the entrance of the museum.  His image is from a photo taken on a World War 2 Pacific Island landing.  "Come on!!!"  The Army made a recruiting poster out of it.  Hard to imagine why.

I discovered a totally separate part of the Museum that Eldon had not found (Maybe cause it was raining) but it was the Patton Park.  Since George S. Patton is Eldon's ... like favorite role model, not to mention his cell phone's ring tone, he was not too happy to have missed it.  But, I took enough photos to appease him.  Eldon did not know that Patton had a son, nor that he became a Major General as well.  

This is the Sherman (the Union general who liberated Andersonville and burnt Atlanta) tank, the main U.S. battle tank of World War 2.  Although not the best tank compared to the Germans, the ability to make more, lots more, is definitely an advantage.

And this is the M-1 Abrams (Creighton Abrams - unfortunately(?) head of the Army in Vietnam) main battle tank of the modern army.  It is a very impressive machine.  Best in the world, if only it was not so heavy.  But look at the "nasty" factor.

This is the modern Bradley (Omar Bradley - the "common soldier" 3-star general in WW2) Fighting Vehicle that is designed to transport a dozen soldiers into the middle of a battle (safely) and then dump them out to fend for themselves - but it does have multiple guns to help them on their mission.

And lastly this is the Patton tank, named of course after THE Patton, but sadly never really used much other than in Korea.  Eldon thinks it is very "pretty" though.  

So, back to the Plantation for more food and drinking.