The United States of America is a very fortunate nation. There has not been a battle on its soil since 1865, and no war with a foreign invader there since fifty years prior to that. For the historically-minded traveler, this means that most accessible sites date from the days of muzzle-loaded weapons and horses. There is a wealth of Civil War, War of 1812, and Revolutionary sites along the East Coast; if someone from New England to Florida can't find a destination within a five-hour drive of home, then he really isn't trying. Twentieth-century sites are another matter. Since the US has been lucky enough to fight its more recent wars on other people's soil, the battlefields worth visiting happen to be on other continents. The Normandy invasion and Battle of the Bulge are among the very most important battles of American history, for example, but since they took place in France and Belgium respectively, for most Americans seeing them is a once in a lifetime experience, if that. Only Pearl Harbor and the Aleutian Island invasions took place on (or more properly over) territory that comprises one of the 50 states. Even so, getting to either is no easier or cheaper than visiting Europe. However, there are two quintessentially twentieth-century sites in the United States. Furthermore, they are in the eastern midwest, a region otherwise rather poor in military historical sites. United States Air Force Museum The Patton Museum GETTING THERE The United States Air Force Museum is located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, six miles northeast of Dayton, Ohio. This is a central location for visitors from many large cities — including Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis and especially Columbus and Cincinnati. The main entrance is on Springfield Pike, with ready access from Interstates 70, 75, and 675. The site of the Patton Museum is Ft. Knox, Kentucky. The museum is about thirty miles from Louisville, on US Route 60/31W, also known as the Dixie Highway. Visitors from outside Louisville are best advised to bypass that city and the denser of its western suburbs by taking the Gene Snyder Freeway (Interstate 365/Kentucky Route 841) around the southern environs to its western terminus at the Dixie Highway. Back to Cry Havoc #24 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com