Travels With Charlie

Charles Seabrook

Veteran Georgia journalist Charles Seabrook has covered native wildlife and environmental issues for decades. For “Travels with Charlie,” he visits and photographs communities throughout the state.

Georgia is home to some 20 large and small museums dedicated to military history and to the honor of men and women who serve. No matter their size, all of the museums are important — sobering and powerful reminders of the perils of war and its toll in human lives and suffering, from the American Revolution to the global war on terrorism.

The larger museums are replete with weapon displays; old tanks, fighter jets and other war machines; scores of historic artifacts from U.S. wars; and life-size dioramas of soldiers and airmen in combat. Sculptures and other art also help pay tribute to America’s military men and women.

Here’s a brief look at four top military museums in Georgia — and some of the best in the country. If you go, allow at least a half day to see all that each has to offer.

National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Fort Benning

1775 Legacy Way, Columbus, Ga. 31903 nationalinfantrymuseum.org Free admission; $5 suggested donation.

Opened in 2009, it’s now one of the nation’s top-rated military museums. Its 190,000 square feet of space has thousands of artifacts, monuments, interactive exhibits and video presentations on display — collectively one of the world’s greatest military collections.

On the museum’s spacious grounds is the World War II Company Street, a group of seven original 1940s-era buildings used on Fort Benning to train soldiers for the war. Also on the museum grounds is a stark reminder of the human cost of war, a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington that bears 58,318 names of U.S. military personnel killed in the conflict. 1

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1 National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga. 2 World War II Company Street, National

Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga. 3 National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga. 4 3/4 scale replica of Vietnam Veterans Memorial,

National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga. 5 P-51 Mustang, Museum of Aviation, Warner Robins AFB, Ga. 6 Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet, Museum of Aviation, Warner Robins AFB, Ga. 7 B-52 bomber, Museum of Aviation, Warner Robins AFB, Ga.

Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins Air Force Base

1942 Heritage Blvd., Robins AFB, Ga. 31098 museumofaviation.org Free admission / free parking.

Founded in 1980, it’s now the second largest aerospace museum of the U.S. Air Force. Housed in its four huge exhibit buildings and on its grounds is an amazing collection of more than 85 historic bombers, cargo planes, fighter jets, helicopters, missiles, drones and special aircraft.

One of the planes is a massive B-1 bomber, which was designed to replace the aging B-52 bomber — one of which also sits on the museum’s grounds. Numerous other exhibits display historic Air Force artifacts. Dioramas also portray airmen, pilots and other personnel performing various tasks on aircraft, such as loading missiles.

National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force

175 Bourne Ave., Pooler, Ga. 31322 mightyeighth.org Tickets range $7-$12 each. Tours start at $10 for adults, $5 for children.

Much of the museum is dedicated to the history of the Eighth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Corps, which carried out key bombing missions in the European Theater during World War II. Among its many World War II exhibits is a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.

National Prisoner of War Museum

Andersonville National Historic Site (NHS) 496 Cemetery Rd., Andersonville, Ga. 31711 nps.gov/ande/planyourvisit/natl_pow_ museum.htm Free admission.

Opened in 1998, it’s the nation’s only museum dedicated to telling the stories of prisoners of war throughout American history. The museum is a good place to start a tour of the Andersonville NHS, the site of the infamous Confederate Army’s Camp Sumter that imprisoned thousands of captured Union soldiers. Nearly 13,000 men died here as prisoners of war because of the horrible conditions. 8

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