Carlisle Army Barracks

Today's destination is the Carlisle Barracks and the US Army Heritage & Education Center.  Arriving there, we unloaded PoGoGo and headed first for the Army Heritage Trail which is about a mile long and has "fourteen individual exhibits include full scale reconstructions of a French and Indian War way station, Redoubt Number 10 from the Revolutionary War siege of Yorktown, a section of the Antietam battlefield, a Civil War winter encampment with cabins, a WWI trench system, a WWII company area, a replicated Normandy Bocage scene from World War II, a Current Operations HESCO Bastion barrier checkpoint, and an interpretation of the Vietnam helicopter air assault at Ia Drang that includes a period Fire Support Base."

The above quote is from the Army Heritage Trail web page, part of an excellent site about the Center. On that page you can click on the items in the list of exhibits and see pictures and infomation  about each of them.

We took our time at most of these exhibits and there are several benches along the way for resting. Of course with PoGoGo I didn't need the benches but it was nice for Geoffrey and provided some nice stopping points.

You can actually go into the entrance to the German pillbox that is part of the WWI trench system but we both chose not to hunker down and creep through the dark passage.

Yorktown Redoubt

From the trail we went into the Visitor and Education Center building for the indoor exhibits, some of which are changed frequently. Just the Soldier Experience Gallery alone is fascinating showing the soldier's point of view from joining up to coming home. Part of the space is given over to a changing exhibit area showing new soldier stories and special topics. There are additional exhibits principally from the Spanish American War up through Afghanistan and the War on Terror. Allow several hours for this visit, better yet the entire day. If you're looking to do research on individuals, units, battles or wars, there is also the Ridgeway Hall Research Room.

Of course never forget the Visitor Center's shop ... always a source of good souvenirs and ball caps but also the proceeds from these places generally go to the support of the attached museum so I prefer to get my souvenirs at such places rather than regular stores. Here I got a great ball cap and a cuddly Army bear that will go well with a pair of bears I bought last year at the Black Bear Diner in Cottonwood, Arizona.