After the long haul from Unadilla/Oneonta, we enjoyed a good deep sleep and awoke to an absolutely gorgeous day! Originally we had planned to go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to see the Museum of the U.S. Air Force, but instead decided to take advantage of this excellent KOA facility with no other campers within 100 yards.
As the ragweed is running riot here in Ohio, we buttoned up for the night and put the air on. That made for a good night's sleep.
Wednesday morning Jim had the usual wake up call from the dogs at 6am, and he took them for a stroll around the area. The temperature was even better than yesterday, starting in the high 60's and moving into the mid-70's as the sun came up.
Taking our time to get moving, we disconnected from the ground power/water/cable, and after a 30" drive arrived at the Museum of the U.S. Air Force. We parked in some shade and went in. The Museum is enormous! Currently 3 hangers and a circular display building make up the main facility, and on another part of the airfield two more hangers hold aircraft including the entire collection of Air Force One's. That collection is what Becky wanted to see most, and of all things, the "Sequester" caused those two hangers to be closed to the public. BUMMER!!! Now it's become personal!!
Back to the Museum and what IS available. Each hanger contains a different era or theme, and they are exceptionally well laid out and contain practically all the important aircraft that the U.S. Army Air Force and it's successor, the U.S. Air Force, flew or fought against. Interestingly, after passing through security (translated-women's handbags are inspected!) one enters and exits through the gift shop.
The first hanger contains the World War I aircraft, and the aircraft and explanatory exhibits are terrific. Aircraft are both on the ground and suspended from the ceiling, and it's real easy to miss those that are overhead! Jim particularly liked the observation balloon with 2 guys in a basket looking at a German Fokker Tri-Motor rolling in upside down to shoot at them!
Walking into the World War II hanger, we were both astonished to come across an extensive exhibit dedicated to a Medal of Honor winner that we had heard of--Captain Jay Zeamer of Boothbay Harbor. Jay was a B-17 pilot, and his crew were known as the "Eager Beavers" because they continually volunteered for dangerous missions. Additionally, they outfitted their aircraft with extra 50 caliber machine guns, 19 in all. Their heroism and tenacity made the Eager Beavers the most highly decorated crew in Air Force history! A wall plaque tells the story of a reconnaissance mission they made unescorted over Bougainville in 1943, and how they were jumped by a flight of 20 Japanese Zero's. By the time they limped back to base, they had shot down several of the Zeros, taken over 200 bullet and cannon holes in their aircraft, and Zeamer safely landed the aircraft with his legs paralyzed from the 120 pieces of shrapnel he took in his body. He received the Medal of Honor, as did his co-pilot. The rest of the crew all received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and nearly all got purple hearts. Jay was a very active member of American Legion Post 36 in Boothbay Harbor, and it was really neat to see this tribute to him and read the story.
There were so many great exhibits in this section, and we could have spent hours there. The "30 seconds over Tokyo" display had one of the surviving B-25's from the raid and a great movie showing the story of what happened, narrated by Jimmy Doolittle. All the famous fighters and bombers were there--American, British, Japanese and German. One of the most impressive was the B-29 "Bocks Car", the aircraft that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki. Replicas of both bombs were displayed next to the aircraft.
Jim particularly enjoyed the Vietnam era hanger, as he had a great deal of familiarity with some of the aircraft and the events that went along with them. The display on Rolling Thunder, with a B-52 in war paint and an explanation of the Arc Light campaign (B-52 raids) was quite good. Particularly sobering was the C-123 aircraft and accompanying display regarding "Operation Ranch Hand"--the defoliation campaign utilizing Agent Orange. Their was an excellent description of what transpired, and the photo of 4 aircraft spraying the chemical reminded him of the photo he took of the same aircraft (apparently there were only five airplanes involved for awhile) at dusk along the DMZ.Because of the heat and other considerations, plus the huge disappointment of not being able to see the Presidential Aircraft, we decided to cut the visit short and come back after the "Sequester" is over. As we were walking out, Becky heard us being paged ("would the owners of the RV with Maine plates........), and at the information booth we were told the Police wanted us to move our RV or we would be ticket for taking two spaces. Another Bummer! We had parked beyond the last vehicle in the lot and in the shade when we came in, and there are a 2000+ spaces there. We were apparently supposed to park at the end of the lot, about 1/4 of a mile away. OK, maybe 100 cars had arrived since we showed up and they were now parked out to where we were, but you'd think they had more important things to think of. In any event, we highly recommend a visit!
We got back to the campground around 1pm, and spent some time on the phone arranging to have our refrigerator problem looked at (it's not working on propane; some sort of blockage) tomorrow. We'll stop at a Camping World near Indianapolis.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying the quiet campground, relaxing, and enjoying the dogs. The best part of the evening was listening to the Red Sox whip up on the Detroit Tigers--it's 16-4 as Jim writes this blog!
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