Texas Veterans Museum

Cec is a Weight Watchers lifetime member, and I accompanied her to several meetings at the tiny mall in Huntsville during our recent visits to Riverside.  Cec had been to the mall before and pointed out that it houses a small military museum.  So while she attended her meeting, I wandered down to the Texas Veterans Museum.  It turned out to be quite good, and I asked about volunteering.  History is one of my deepest interests, and I am particularly fascinated by World War II, which I refight night after night on the History and Military Channels.  They told me need vounteers and to "Come on down!"

Monday I visited them again, and I reiterated my interest in volunteering.  They invited me to visit the museum today and sit with one of their experienced volunteers to learn the ropes, which I did on the 10-2 shift.  

I head a great time time talking to the volunteers and staff.  I totally admire the WWII combat vets, and hero worship is not too strong a term.  Today I met a Navy vet whose aircraft carrier, the Wasp, was torpedoes in the Solomon Islands, and he spent 16 hours in the water!  Another was a gunner in a bomber who was shot down on his first mission over Germany.  Of course, he spent time in a Nazi prison camp.  I also met M. B. Etheredge,  known to everyone as "Colonel," who was a highly decorated soldier of WWII and a close colleague of Audie Murphy, the most decorated solider of WWII.

The museum has a State grant for a new building north of Huntsville near the Texas Prison Museum (features "Old Sparky," the infamous electric chair).  It will be built in conjunction with a civil defense shelter, and the veterans have volunteered to staff the shelter when it is in use.  Hurricane Rita created frightening chaos in this area, and the State is planning for the future.  The agreement with the vets seems like a win-win situation.

They asked me to come back next week.  I'll be there.