Visited 2 Museums today

[CAPFlyer]

I tried to name it "Visit to the Centex Wing and National Museum of the Pacific War" but that was too long.

Anyway, been in San Antonio for almost a week and will be here through the end of this week for work and was lucky enough to get today off, so I spent it visiting a couple of museums I'd wanted to visit for quite some time.

First off, I visited San Marcos and the CAF Centex Wing.

Below are some of the pics, but the full album is here - http://s183.photobucket.com/user/CAPFly ... ust%202015

All of their planes were in the house and I got at least one good pic of most of them. Starting with the U-3


Their SAAF Harvard -


The WASP SNJ -



The P-39 -


The OY-1 -


Tora 107 -


And the Rose -


In their museum, they had several excellent displays, including a large scale USS Hornet with the Doolittle Raid on deck



And a large display case with some excellent dioramas among other things -



There are several panoramas of their display cases, including one with representatives of almost all the rifles that saw wide-spread use during WWII and many handguns and even a M2 .303 MG in the album which I'll not post here to keep from taking up too much space.

My visit to Fredricksburg in the next post.

Edit: Fixed wrong identification of USS Hornet.

Last edited by CAPFlyer on Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[CAPFlyer]

First, the full album for this visit is here - http://s183.photobucket.com/user/CAPFly ... ust%202015

On arriving at the National Museum of the Pacific War, you are greeting with the Fairwater of the USS Pintado, a US fleet submarine, and the Main Mast of the USS Foote, a US destroyer. Unfortunately, I somehow didn't get a pic of the Fairwater, only the plaque.




Inside, the exhibits are well presented with many artifacts from each battle of the Pacific being presented. First is a pic in the "Road to War" section that covers the 100+ years of conflict between China, Japan, and the West that led up to war.


What follows are some artifacts from the period 1900 to 1930 -




Just before you enter the "War" section of the exhibit, you find the Vice Admiral's Ensign on display from the IJN Nigato, Yamamoto's original Flagship.


After a 5 minute presentation about the days immediately prior to Pearl Harbor, you enter the area that holds the Midget Sub display. From there, you see a short multimedia presentation about the attack and then move into the main exhibit areas. One of the artifacts they have from Pearl is the oil-stained uniform of a seaman who was at the Sub pens during the attack -


From there, you move to the B-25 display, which didn't come out well, and then to Guadalcanal and the "Cactus Air Force", where the Wildcat is displayed -


Moving on, they have on display an M3 tank that was in Australian Service in the Pacific when it was hit by a Japanese 37mm gun and taken out of action. They also have the gun, but that pic didn't come out either.


One of the more interesting items I saw during the tour was this Bat Bomb (I'm guessing a mockup). The US's attempts at guided muntions aren't well covered by most museums, so seeing a Bat was nice when most likely you'll see a Tarzon or Razon bomb.


The only other full aircraft on display in this part of the exhibit was the Rex floatplane fighter.


They also had a couple of nice diorama mockups of a Cruiser's Combat Bridge and a carrier's Combat Information Center to show off some of their equipment in the collection. Here is the CIC that came out pretty well -


Finally, before the short "post war" section, you find their replica of Fat Man-


Just before going back to the lobby, they have a very nice display showing all of the Medal of Honor recipients from WWII on the wall, but the glare killed the only picture I got.

Back in the lobby, they have this massive, 3-piece model of the USS Nimitz that was very well detailed and makes you wonder how long it took to build -


Outside, they had several artillery pieces and ships weapons, but the one I wanted to highlight here is one of the Torpedo Launchers from the USS Foote -


I was running short on my self-imposed timeline, so I wasn't able to really enjoy the Peace Garden, memorial wall, or the Nimitz Hotel museum, but I hope to get back in the future to see those as they looked as well done as the main museum. I hope my pics give a good idea of what to expect and you'll maybe consider adding it to your plans if you happen to be in South Texas.

Last edited by CAPFlyer on Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tom d. friedman]

thanks for the tour!! the George is especially cool!!! didn't know there was more than 1 example in the states!!

[dougwolfpacker]

I hope they had the Doolittle Raid labeled for the USS Hornet, not the USS Wasp as you stated in your picture of the carrier model.

http://www.uss-hornet.org/history/wwii/doolittle.shtml

[dirtysidedown430]

Watched old ww2 movie last night Destroyer with EG Robinson Glen Ford and the head kid from dead end kids they showed that torpedo launcher in action.


https://youtu.be/1M2BqUz1SHA

[Obergrafeter]

I always thought the float fighter was a "Rex" Same airplane different nomenclature?

[tom d. friedman]

you are correct......

[CAPFlyer]

That's what I get for putting it up after a long day and using quick notes I scribbled down instead of actually looking at the pictures I took of the info boards....

Yes, it is a Rex and the Hornet is the Hornet and labelled as the Hornet. I'm a much better student of WWII history than that post makes it out to be.

[BAJ]

Thanks CAPFlyer nice photos