Fort Rucker and Ozark

Ft Rucker, Alabama is the home of US Army Aviation, the Army's helicopter training facility and the Air Museum.  We took the 40 mile ride over  from Abbeville yesterday to check it out. We had some rain the evening before and the forecast calls for possibly high winds and thunderstorms today so we'd rather not be in the forest in those weather conditions.  It makes for a good day-trip and the sun was out all day -- no rain. Ha!

We arrived in early afternoon and stayed several hours at the museum.  I took these photos

Entry to the U.S. Army Aviation Museum

Entering Ft. Rucker

Caribou was the Army's fixed wing troop transport during the Vietnam war.



This small, circular Vietnam Memorial room bears the names of all Army aviators killed in the Vietnam conflict.  Interestingly, the museum giftshop sells Army gifts made in Vietnam.  Pity.



The infamous Hughes TH 55. 
It's the reason Wayne left the Army's primary helicopter school at Ft. Wolters.
Looks safe enough, eh?  No.

This Army I helicopter served US presidents until sometime during the Ford administration.

Momentos from the Presidential Helicopter days...

All folded up!

Shinok CH-47 cargo transport

That clear enough for you?

You don't want to see this happen --

Memories of 4077 M.A.S.H. from the Korean war.

We ended the day going back through Ozark, Alabama to look for the church building my dad work on sometime in the mid 1960's.  All I could remember about it was that it was a new building for the Church of Christ in Ozark, it sat on an angle on slight rise on a highway. My brother and dad worked there all summer -- mom and I came for many weeks during the summer months too.  Unable to locate any Churches of Christ with the GPS, we stopped in at a motel, thumbed through the yellow pages and retrieved the address of the only building it could possibly be. We drove to the location and I recognized it immediately.  This is it.

What a great thing to find!