![]() It's the only one of the three museums displaying an atomic bomb replica, overhead in the 1941-1945 gallery. One odd exhibit depicts unsuspecting Civil War Union troops and French WWI tanks about to be blown up by buried mines (implying that Army engineers might have cleared the way). The Engineer Museum has dioramas showing assembly of pontoon bridges in World War II and blast-proof walls in Afghanistan. They are also responsible for the thousands of temporary buildings created for training and housing troops, storing supplies and equipment, etc. The regiment chronicled at this museum is chiefly comprised of combat engineers - topographical engineers, port and tactical bridge builders, landmine experts and other special warfare support skills. A gallery of MP-created art includes Ann-Margaret in Vietnam and terrified Iraqis, all under the watchful eyes of the military police.Īrmy Engineers are not exactly the same as the Army Corp of Engineers, the levee-building public works arm of the military. There are displays on attack dog training, weapons confiscated from Cuban refugees, and a selection of board games and sleep aids issued to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The exhibits show MPs performing other functions: they guard America's military prisons, they guard POWs, they guarded Allied Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. ![]() The MP Museum shows a wax dummy doing just that - at the most important intersection of WWII, the entry to the last standing bridge across the Rhine into Germany (a piece of the Remagen bridge is outside the building entrance, along with a slab of Berlin Wall). We admit, our collective knowledge of MPs comes from old movies - they're the guys in armbands and pot helmets blowing whistles and breaking up GI bar fights, or directing military traffic in intersections. The Chemical Corps view of the modern world can be seen in a model of an Army Doomsday truck, sealed against radiation, chemical, and biological death, and a diorama of a dummy in a hazmat suit removing anthrax from someone's office desk.įor a breather (no mask required), we walked down the hall to the Military Police and Army Engineer museums, each surprisingly substantial.īulldozing rubble in the Army Engineer Museum. In one diorama, a 1950s housewife dummy in a home fallout shelter gazes lovingly at a baby doll sealed in a chemical warfare tent-cocoon. "I'm sure," she said, "that every private that graduates from basic training is really glad." Modern detection equipment, she said, eliminates unnecessary time spent in survival gear, as well as the dubious practice of ordering low-ranking soldiers to remove their masks to find out what happens. "Eventually the protective gear itself will kill you," said Cynthia, citing heat stroke as a prime culprit. Rubber suits, goggle-eyed masks, and portable filtration systems for troops are everywhere. These items share exhibit space with nastier artifacts such as nerve gas land mines, and displays on Napalm and Agent Orange. But they played a key role in the conduct of conventional battle: artillery mortar units to deliver smoke screen shells, and flamethrowers, designed by the then Chemical Warfare Service in 1940-41. Museum curator Cynthia Riley told us that the animal wear was intended as a temporary exhibit, but visitors have loved it so much that she hasn't had the heart to take it down.Īfter World War I, much of the Chemical Corps Regiment's focus was on a gas warfare mission never executed - a genie bottle never uncorked. Of even more interest are masks and suits designed for dogs, horses, and even pigeons. There's a photo of Walt Disney convening with military brass to discuss the cartoon mask development, and a picture of Charlie McCarthy donning a ventriloquist dummy-sized gas mask. It's a visitor favorite, hidden among a display of dozens of other gas masks. The Mickey Mouse gas mask, for example, was a failed attempt to make chemical warfare fun for kids. Then it's out to the museum exhibits - and since aerosol attacks are often invisible, it's the accompanying gear and gizmos that are displayed, much of it appealing in a very dark way. We enter through the best replica World War I trench in America (there are others), a short-but-effective wandering path past dugouts and barbed wire and a trench infirmary with a coughing (gassed) dummy soldier. We start with the Chemical Corps Museum, a favorite in Alabama years ago, much changed and expanded now. Each of the three museums has merits - all populated by scores of dummies in dioramas, unfolding their stories in chronological sections and galleries.
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