Vincennes, IN
One man’s collection of military artifacts grew into this non-profit museum in Indiana full of uniforms, helmets, tanks, and aircraft. The nicely-displayed artifacts in the cases were very informative and helpful to brush up on US war history. Artifacts were also displayed from other countries’ military branches as well as staged scenes from 1940s homes and barracks. We were reminded of the New Orleans WWII Museum walking through here, however, this museum contains memorabilia of all the US conflicts to put all the wars into perspective.
I have to admit that I had forgotten about some of the wars like the Spanish American war in 1898 (Teddy Roosevelt was a Rough Rider in the San Juan Hills of Cuba during that war).
The retired museum docent enjoyed a 14-year old’s plethora of questions and toured around the museum with us. Ava was able to definitely able to count this as part of her home school history class. Since Nathan prefers public school, he gets extra schooling over the summer with our visits.
Outside the museum was a military machine historian’s dream. All sorts of cannons, tanks, weapons, all-terrain vehicles and so forth were on display. There were so many that we weren’t able to see them all before we had to leave to continue on the road.
As we all know, freedom isn’t free and soldiers pay a heavy price in conflicts. In times of peace, military families are uprooted to move around the country and world. I thank our military men and women for their service to our country.
Here is the list of American wars in case you were wondering:
The Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
War of 1812 (1812-1815)
Mexican – American War (1846-1848)
American Civil War (1861–1865)
Spanish-American War (1898)
World War I (1914-1918)
World War II (1939-1945)
Korean War (1950-1953)
Vietnam War (1959-1975)
Gulf War (1990-1991)
War in Afghanistan (2001 – estimated 9/11/2021 withdrawal date)
Iraqi War (2003-2011) – my brother served two tours in the Army in this war.