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The Infantry Museum is currently closed and moving into a new facility. Watch for the grand opening in March 2009.
The National Infantry Museum, established at the Home of the U.S. Infantry in 1959 at Fort Benning, Georgia, has just one mission: to honor the Infantryman and his more than two centuries of proud service to the nation. The museum offers visitors 30,000 square feet of exhibit space within an impressive historic masonry building that features large, well-lit, carpeted galleries. The climate-controlled building is accessible to those using wheelchairs. An elevator serves all four floors of the museum. Over 100,000 visitors each year proudly trace the footsteps of Infantrymen from the 1607 wilderness of Virginia to the 1991 sands of the Persian Gulf, from the French Charleville flintlock musket to the atomic Davy Crockett, from victory at Yorktown to events in Vietnam. Visitors are exposed to an ever-changing kaleidoscope of edged weapons, uniforms, footwear, mess equipment, fine oil paintings, firearms, bronzes, helmets, and vehicles ranging from a 1902 Studebaker Utility Wagon to the legendary Jeep. Family members with different tastes will soon discover that the museum is much more than a collection of things painted Army green. Around the next corner
you may see a petrified tree, an 1825 coverlet, a bronze by Davidson or
Fraser, a document signed by John Hancock, George Washington or Franklin
D. Roosevelt, a bust of Adolph Hitler, a gas mask for a horse, a Medal
of Honor, a French tapestry, an M-1 Garand, Springfield musket or M-16
rifle. You might see an 1840 Chickering piano, a prisoner of war
uniform, a set of Civil War dominos, playing cards, a painted eagle drum
or a bugle. The museum shows not only the weapons, uniforms and personal
equipment of U.S. Infantrymen, but also that of the enemies who chose to
test our resolve.
The museum also contains a
100-seat auditorium where a variety of films are shown daily; a gallery
of military art which may be featuring sterling silver, oriental pottery
or a collection of turn-of-the-century newspapers; a gift shop which
offers art prints, books, pewter and crystal as well as model soldiers,
T-shirts and jewelry; or a gallery which recalls the Civil War that pit
brother against brother is just some of the adventure that awaits you at
the National Infantry Museum. Admission is free and the museum
is open to the public Monday through Friday 1000 to 1630, and Saturday
and Sunday 1230 to 1630. It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New
Year's Day and federal holidays celebrated on Monday. The museum is easily accessible
from Interstate 185 (just watch for the signs) and has lots of free
parking. Restaurants are also available on post. Tours may be arranged by calling
the museum at (706) 545-2958. Infantry Museum hours:
Bldg 396, (706) 545-6762
Infantry
Museum Gift Shop
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Hits Since June 8, 2007 |
