Airborne Special Operations Museum – Fayetteville, NC

Located in Fayetteville, NC, this is a must see. Not only do they explain why anyone in their right mind would jump out of a perfectly good airplane, they follow Special Operations thoughout all the major conflicts and give you a real look into what they did (often behind the scenes) and you may learn some things you did not know. This month they also have an exhibit on the OSS intelligence/spy operation which later became the CIA.

For pictures of my visit and comments, click here.

I learned that gadgets like Q made for James Bond are quite real. They did develop tiny explosives, the tiniest 1 bullet gun I have ever seen, explosives that would go off automatically hours after they were gone from an area, etc.

I learned that Grenada was invaded not only to save American medical students from the new communist takeover there but also because they were building an air strip there which threatened both Carribean shipping lanes and the Panama Canal.

When they went to Panama to get Noriega, they also busted an American out of prison there who had been jailed for operating a transmitter to denounce Noriega and his regime. He was guarded by an executioner with orders to kill him if the US tried to get him out. He failed but Special Ops didn’t.

I saw the Cricket clicker used on D-Day to identify troops to one another, planes, helicopters, tanks, ATVs, spy/saboteur devices and weapons, and much more. With the help of a ride in their simulator, I finally got to ski, ride in a helicopter, ride a motorcycle in a fast moving convoy through the desert, and skydive. It was well worth it and it was free though I managed to help support them through their gift shop and the simulator was $4. I now have my Airborne wings! 😉