Tuesday, April 3, 2018

More Goings at Casa De Garabaldi

We were heading out of town for a few days down in Florida, but we made a stopover on the way for a wedding,   My Good Friend Mack who is known to a bunch of bloggers as a regular commentator on mine and a bunch of other blogs got hitched.  For a long time we though this mysterious women was a figment of his and our imagination.   But I met her a couple of years ago and she is a class act and compliments Mack , they are made for each other, but we went to the wedding and it was a heck of a shindig, it was held at a gun range...Go Figure...Only Mack would be off the wall enough to do that.

   They both are a class act and to use an Old Southernism "they are good people"  I am sure that Mack will drag Jackie off to a museum or a military history site on their honeymoon.

     We headed down Saturday evening and got here late and went to early services on the beach...Wow Church on a beach...on Easter no less.
While hanging around here, we went to a museum on Eglin AFB, it was the "Armaments" museum and it is pretty good.    Eglin is known as the home of MOAB or "Mother of All Bombs"

The Air Force Armament Museum, adjacent to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the only facility in the U.S. dedicated to the display of Air Force armament. Founded in 1975, it was originally located in a converted gymnasium on the northeastern edge of the Eglin main base, adjacent to Valparaiso, Florida.
Visitors can view a variety of historical Air Force planes, from a World War II B-17 bomber to an F-4 Phantom II jet. A wide variety of bombs, missiles, and rockets are exhibited, including the newest air-to-air missile, the AMRAAM, and the GBU-28 bunker-buster developed for use during Operation Desert Storm. Other missiles include the Paveway series, Falcons, the Tomahawk, Mace, Hound Dog, radar-controlled, laser-controlled and several guided by a TV camera in the nose. Also on display is the GBU-43 MOAB, Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or by its nickname, "Mother of All Bombs", the world's largest conventional explosive weapon. A predecessor, the T12 38,600 lb. demolition bomb, is displayed outside, while a Fat Man casing is indoors.
A gun vault displays a variety of weapons ranging from a 1903 Springfield rifle to the GAU-8, which is capable of shooting 6,000 rounds per minute. Featured here is the Sikes Antique Pistol Collection, with over 180 handguns, including flintlocks, duelling pistols, Western six-shooters, Civil War pistols, and a wide variety of early military weaponry.

B25A Configured in "Doolittle Raider" configuration down to the "fake" guns they installed to scare off any Japanese Fighters

B17G model
Everyones favorite DumpTruck for bombs..
The B52, this one is a "G" model.  There a still versions of the B52 in
service and forecast to continue until 2050, that is a 100 year run for an airplane, nothing comes close.
F104 Starfighter
The MOAB, My son being his usual thrilled self because I wanted to use him as a a scale of measurement.  

P80 Shooting Star


This is the layout of the Museum, it is well worth the trip and the Museum is "Free".  I also picked up a book about the "Son-Tay POW night raid" and the book is signed by the Author.


The Museum is worth the visit, I wanted to visit the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola but time was not my friend.  Oh well, next time since my brother lives in this area.












4 comments:

  1. Fantastic museum! I love that one. The F-105 was flown there for display and one of the workers in there was telling me that he was the one ordered to spike the engine a few years back. Before that, it was a complete and functional J-75. Come through New Orleans on your way home...we'll do WW2 museum or something else cool.

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    1. Hey Murphy;

      I would like to plan a trip to New Orleans, but it will probably be after NRAAM. My work schedule will change in April where I will have more time off :) This museum for a "small" museum is a very good one, I really enjoyed the visit.

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  2. Oh man. Never been there but that looks like a cool place. Thanks for the post. You know when we are are too old to even wheel our way somewhere, these posts will be nice to take a gander at history from our homes. Just like today. I could get lost for days in a museum.

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    1. Hey Momma Fargo;

      We will never be too old, bite your tongue....I can get lost for a long time in a museum, seeing and touching history is really neat. I sometimes think I am a frustrated History teacher, LOL

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