h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

ANother free museum is the National Infantry Museum at the home of the infantry, Fort Benning, GA. The museum documents the histroy of the American infantry. It has examples of weapons, information about equipment and tactics, and souvineers that span the 226 years of the American infantry. There are even a couple of items from before the United States Infantry was established.

I visited a couple of weeks ago. They had an exhibit on the use of dogs in combat.

The thing I really got a kick out of was the Davy Crocket system. It was sort of a legend in my field in the Army because it used the same sight system as as our mortars. The Davy Crocket system was a recoiless rifle that fired a nuclear projectile. If authorized, it would be issued to a battalion commander with 4 warheads. The big joke of the whole thing was that the kill radius was slightly larger than the maximum range.

The most impressive thing is the list of men who were awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), third award. In order to be eligible, you have to engage the enemy as an infatryman in three seperate wars. The only men to have been awarded the badge served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Army has not issued a second award CIB since Vietnam. I only have the first award of the COmabt Infatryman's Badge. I can't imagie going back and doing it two more times over a period of thirty years.

The museum is pretty easy to find. Just take I-185 onto the base, and follow the signs to the museum. The base is open, so you don't have to go through a gate.