The Airborne & Special Operations Museum

The Airborne & Special Operations Museum Admissions to the incredible wealth of history is FREE!!! The Museum, Gallery, Medal of Honor Wall, Iron Mike, and our Temporary Gallery is FREE!!!
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Bring your Veteran, Soldier, Unit, family, class or social group and see what our United Sates Airborne & Special Operations have been up to since WWII. And if that is not enough our Volunteers are the greatest wealth of history we have, from Normandy to Afghanistan we have living history that will be sure to amaze you and enrich your view of our Military.
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Attractions to support the Museum

Foundation are very reasonably priced and include:

Motion Simulator: $5.00
Large Screen Theater $4.00
Combo Tickets: $8.00
Gift Shop is open during Museum hours

For reservations for large groups / special events contact [email protected] or call 910-643-2773

For Military events / training contact [email protected] or call 910-643-2775

04/26/2013

Role models...

-Jinx

04/12/2013

Rangers from 2nd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment practice advanced marksmanship techniques at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wash. March 30, 2013. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Mikki Sprenkle)

Rangers Lead The Way!

04/06/2013

REVERSE SIDE FLAG

The tradition of having the flag reversed on the military uniform come from early Army history when both mounted cavalry and Infantry units would assign a standard bearer who would carry the Colors into battle. As the flag bearer charged forward, momentum caused the flag to stream back. Since the flag is mounted with the field of stars closest to the pole, that section stayed to the right, while the stripes flew to the left.

When the U.S. Flag is displayed on a moving object, the highest position of honor is the front, and not the rear; so the field of stars should be displayed toward the front. As a soldier moves forward, the stripes should appear to flow to the rear as if it were blowing in the breeze. If a flag were to not be reversed, it could appear that it is moving backward; appearing to be retreating.

In February 2004, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker approved the flag for continuous wear on the uniform, giving soldiers until Oct. 1, 2005 to get the reversed flag sewn on their uniforms. Prior to then, flags were only put on the uniform during deployments. One reason for the change was to represent our commitment to fight the war on terror and “serves as a vivid reminder that our nation is at war.” (SGM Walter Morales)

The flag is governed under Army Regulation 670-1, “Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia.” According to Army Regulation 670-1, Paragraph 28-18, “All soldiers throughout the Force, regardless of deployment status, will wear the full-color U.S. flag cloth replica on utility and organizational uniforms.” The regulation also states that, “The full-color U.S. flag cloth replica is worn so that the star field faces forward, or to the flag’s own right. When worn in this manner, the flag is facing to the observer’s right, and gives the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward. The appropriate replica for the right shoulder sleeve is identified as the reverse side flag.”

Written by Meach from Gruntworks!

-Meach

03/16/2013

THE GUIDON:

Guidons (a modern military standard) are a common site on military installations and they have a very long history. Since at least the 15th Century BC, leaders like the Egyptian Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (or Thutmose III) used standards while on military campaign for communication purposes while hunting down the rebellious leaders of the Mitanni Empire.(1)

Later, the Roman Empire made the job of a standard bearer into a prestigious position within the legions and created two different ranks among the men who became popular javelin targets for the opposing army. The common legionary who carried the unit’s standard (not the eagle) was known as a signifer.(2) He was a brave soldier and also numerate since he handled the retirement fund of the other men in his unit. The more senior standard bearer was known as the aquilifer, and he was the man responsible for the eagle of the legion who made double the pay of an average Roman soldier.(3) The standard of a unit became a symbol of pride and men would die to protect it in battle.

In the contemporary American military, the guidon is the standard for companies, batteries, troops, detachments, and platoon sized elements. According to Army Regulation 840-10; the “guidon is a swallow-tailed unit marker, 20-inch hoist by a 27-inch fly, the swallow-tail end forked 10 inches.”(4) The guidons are normally the color of the affiliate organizational color. For example, Infantry guidons are dark blue with white letters and numerals.

All other branches of the military have guidons as well of different sizes and colors. The Marine Corp has one unit that is authorized to have two guidons simultaneously. Charlie Co. 1st Battalion 7th Marines “Su***de Charley” is also authorized to carry a white guidon with a skull and cross bones in the middle because of their heroic actions on Guadalcanal.(5) This proves that guidons are not only unit symbols, but they are also a great source of pride.



1 Battle of Megiddo. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/megiddo.htm
2 Philip Matyszak, Legionary: The Roman Soldier’s Unofficial Manual, (London, UK: Thames & Hudson, 2009), 80.
3 Ibid., 80.
4 AR 840-10, 1 Nov. 1998. pg. 36.
5 Su***de Charley, 1/7. http://www.suicidecharley.com/history-of-suicide-charley.html

Written by GrunkWorks fan, S.a. Litteral.

-Meach

03/01/2013

Anyone else involved in this cl*******ck? If nothing else we learned a few valuable lessons early on.
-chop

Operation Anaconda began late Friday evening on 1 March 2002, in the mountainous Shah-i-Khot region south of the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. Operations by US forces including the insertion of Special Operating Forces from several other nations to set up observation posts. The 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division along with Afghan forces had units inserted into the objective area covering some 60 to 70 square miles. Rough terrain, an altitude of 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and a temperature in the evenings between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit, made a very tough operating environment for soldiers. Al Qaeda troops entrenched along ridges and mountainside caves used heavy machine-gun, mortar and rocket-propelled gr***de fire to immobilize allied Afghan forces and to pin down US soldiers as they disembarked from helicopters.

02/23/2013

You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded , and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out , you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

CPT Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times.....bringing in ammunition, water, and medical supplies to help with the fight and taking out critically wounded soldiers.

He got about 30 of you and your buddies out, many of whom would never have made it otherwise.

In 2008, Ed Freeman, Medal of Honor Recipient, died at the age of 80, in Boise , ID.

God bless these heroes! Support the troops!

02/17/2013

This is a fairly old picture, but it gets the point across pretty well. The number of suicides by veterans is up to 22 everyday now. You do the math!!

REACH OUT!
[email protected]

-Kbar

Address

100 Bragg Boulevard
Fayetteville, NC
28301

Telephone

(910) 643-2778

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