Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg and the 82nd Airborne
Division. The Airborne & Special Operations Museum near Ft. Bragg brings
alive the heroic exploits of soldiers. From the early days of the Parachute
Test Platoon from 1940 to the ongoing War on Terrorism, the Airborne &
Special Operations Museum recounts the actions of heroic soldiers.
many of these line the entrance to the museum in honor of the various divisions
The Museum
Iron Mike
From their website: “The Iron Mike Statue that stands in
front of the museum stands at 16’4″ tall and weighs 3,235 pounds, and is meant
to represent a paratrooper that has just jumped into battle in WWII.
This version of Iron Mike is dedicated to all paratroopers: past, present, and
future. Originally installed at the southern entrance of Fort Bragg at the
Knox Gate, he was later replaced with a bronze replica that now stands in the
traffic circle in front of the Post Headquarters since 1979. On 14 June
2010, the original was refurbished and placed in front of the Airborne &
Special Operations Museum.
The rocks at the base of the Iron Mike Statue have great
significance. They were brought in from the Currahee Mountain, where the
first paratroopers of the 101st and 11th Airborne were trained at Camp
Toccoa. Here, over 17,000 soldiers reported, trained, and successfully
became paratroopers during WWII. Numerous highly-decorated units trained
at Toccoa, one of which was featured in Steven Spielberg’s Band of
Brothers. Paratroopers would run “3 miles up, 3 miles down” this mountain
for training. Today, “Currahee” is the motto of the 506th Infantry
Regiment.”
The museum is very well done with lots of visual aides and explanations of everything as well as the timeline of history of the various wars and operations. It was very interesting to learn how the airborne changed how wars were fought.
entry hall
We broke for lunch when we realized it was going to take longer to tour than we had thought. I guess you could run past all of the exhibits without reading the history, but it was very informative and worth the time to read and understand what special operations were and how they evolved over the years.
The Fried Turkey Sandwich Shop
Philly Cheesesteak
Turkey Supreme
After lunch we walked around the historic downtown before returning to the museum. The centerpiece of Fayetteville is the Market House. This huge building was constructed in 1832, and its heavily British architectural style is not found anywhere else in the city.
Market House
sculpture in front of the art museum
After our short walk we returned to the museum.
"Little Bird"
Before leaving the museum we did the Motion Simulator ride. It simulated flying into Normandy with the 101st
Screaming Eagles on the morning of D-Day and various other situations. It was a
“Disney” experience not an actual simulator. Greg worked in Simulation for a
large part of his career. (designing training simulators for helicopters, vehicles etc.)
After the museum we walked around the NC Veterans Park across the street.
From there we stopped at the Freedom Memorial Park before heading home.
It was sobering but interesting day.
Tomorrow we are off to a couple of State Parks for some birding & hiking.
I really liked the outside sculptures.
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