Columbus and three other Great Lakes area cities are each home to one of the 24 United States Government Book Stores. These contain a very wide listing of more than 10,000 titles in the U.S. Government Publications Inventory.

To sort through the listing, you should ask for the free " 1999 Subject Bibliography Index" and "New and Popular Titles Catalog" to see what is available. I recommend the following Subject Bibliographies: "Buildings, Landmarks and Historic Sites (SB) 140; "National Park Service Handbooks" (SB) 016; "Military History" (SB) 098. The first two bibliographies have a lot of information about Revolutionary War and Civil War forts and battle sites. The last bibliography has information about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. It also contains general information about the four branches of the U.S. armed forces.

The cost of the publications average from $3 to $12, with larger "coffee table" size books $20 to $60. Copies that I purchased myself are:

"Seven Firefights in Vietnam," $4.25.
"The Final Collapse" (of South Vietnam), $5.50.
"Little Bighorn Battlefield," $5.
"Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu," $4.25.
"From Makin to Bouganville: Marine Raiders in the Pacific War," $3.

The last two were for my father Thad, who hopes they'll help him set up a Japanese Island game for the upcoming Advance the Colors'99. I'd like to see Great Lakes members check out the information sources at the government book stores. Their address on the web is: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su-docs.

The location in Columbus is in Room 207, Federal Building, 200 N. High St. (corner of Spring and North High) in downtown. There are also stores in Cleveland (Room 1653, Federal Building, 1240 E. 9th St.), Detroit (Suite 160, Federal Building, 477 Michigan Ave.) and Pittsburgh (Room 2120, Robert Morris Building, 26 Federal Plaza). They are open Monday through Friday, 8am - 4pm. Because these are federal buildings, before being allowed to enter, you will have to pass through a metal detector and send your packages through a scanner (they also may be subject to hand search).