Wherein I Begin to Wonder about My Seeming Obsession with Military Aircraft

A person simply can't get to every museum.  She can't go on every ghost tour.  Some days she just has to do normal things like working out and doing laundry and finishing a great mystery novel.  And, apparently, seeing yet another museum about military aviation.

Savannah is a beautiful city.  It is quite old by U.S. standards, and looks a little like New Orleans, although with less obvious sin.  Sunday afternoon I engaged in the sin of gluttony at Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons.  Actually, I thought I did pretty well given it was a buffet and all.  See all the veggies?

Of course, this picture doesn't include the two different rolls I had along with a remarkable dessert called Gooey Butter Cake which by itself could give you diabetes.  And there was probably more butter in the greens than I'd normally put in cookies.  But still - did you see all the veggies?

I was surprised that I could be seated right away on a Sunday at noon but I don't mind eating at the bar.  It actually is more fun than a table when you're by yourself because you can meet people.  I started talking to a guy from West Palm Beach who had planned to drive to northern Wisconsin for a friend's wedding but was deterred by weather and since he'd planned to be gone for the weekend he came up to Savannah instead.  Let me give you all a minute, as I needed, to roll around in your head the idea of driving from Palm Beach to northern Wisconsin for the weekend.  I guess I've found my new Driveabout role model.  I feel like such a slacker.

Many of you have been generous with your suggestions about places to see, and I thank you.  A special shout out is due, however, to Susan who has come up with two ideas (one in Austin, one in Savannah), which I wouldn't have known about otherwise.  Her Savannah suggestion was to make sure to see Fort Wayne.  Fort Wayne!  The bartender had sort of heard of it, when I described to him what I'd been able to find on my phone.  I went to where he and the Waymarking website describe, but I couldn't find anything that looks like the picture they have.  The bartender said there's just a wall.  Here's what I saw:

I don't know whether this is actually the Fort's wall.  It may just be a retaining wall for the ramp down to River Street.  The Fort was built in the 1760's and its importance is not something that I've been able to determine.  If anyone knows, please post a comment.

Anyway, on the way to Fort Wayne, or the retaining wall, I followed my ears and ended up seeing a church group in one of the many squares Savannah features.

They were playing Dixieland Jazz Gospel.  See - Savannah is sort of like New Orleans, but more Protestant.

After walking about forty-five minutes around downtown, I started to get a little warm and realized that I'd still time to hit the beach at Tybee Island if I high-tailed it, so I did.  It's a nice beach - not as nice as St. Augustine and of course it was only in the 60's (it is February after all, and this is Georgia, not Florida) but the sun was warm and I caught some rays before I had to bundle up.

On the way back from Tybee Island, I drove by the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.  It is completely surrounded with scaffolding, apparently being renovated.  The Federal Building, which is just in the next block, is called the Juliette Gordon Low Federal Building which I thought was pretty cool.

Last night I was planning to go on a ghost tour but after I got cleaned up from the beach I didn't feel like going back out.  I blogged a little and just kicked back.  Sometimes you need a break, even from vacationing.

As had been predicted, it rained all day today.  I decided to take advantage of the rather miserable conditions and take the day off.  Even vacation can get tiring after a while.  So I finished up a fun mystery I'd picked up in New Orleans, rode the exercise bike for over an hour and a half, and did laundry.  But I couldn't get through a full day without at least some tourist-y activity, and since my suburban motel is about a half mile from the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum - and since aerospace museums have apparently become a hobby of mine - I went to check it out.

Until this afternoon I had no idea what the Mighty Eighth was. It is the Eighth Air Force, which began in January, 1942, in Savannah (although it is now apparently based in Louisiana).  Its original mission was supposed to be North Africa but plans changed and on April 8, 1942, it was ordered to England to fight the Germans. The airmen were poorly trained and initially resented by the Royal Air Force since the Americans were paid more than the British troops.  (This is the origin of the phrase "Overpaid, oversexed and over here.")  However, they learned quickly and by 1944 were able to control the airspace over northern France to support D-Day.  You may have heard of Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle who was one of their commanders late in the war.

The museum is wonderful.  It has so much information, presented in such interesting ways.  For instance, you go into a briefing room - it looks just like the kind they used in England - to watch a short movie about their pre-sortie briefings.  Of course they have aircraft, including a B-17 called the City of Savannah.

They have the wing of another B-17 from the Lindy Lou which went down over Belgium.  The pilot died but several members of the crew survived.  In 2001, one of the crewmembers tracked down the wing and brought it from Belgium to the museum.

Wing from the B-17 Lindy Lou

There's a display about being a POW in Germany, and a large display about the "helpers" (as the museum calls them) throughout Nazi-occupied Europe who helped American and British airmen evade capture by the Germans.  Nearly 3,000 Americans and 2,000 U.K. airmen were assisted by these people, who obviously risked all sorts of terrible things had they been discovered.

The museum is very focused on the air war in Europe in World War II.  They do a good job of leading up to the war and of describing the Battle of Britain.  They have an exhibit on the Tuskogee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, also called WASP's.  These women (who were all white - the WASP's excluded black women who tried to enlist) were over 1,000 pilots who flew a variety of missions and although they were officially classified as civilian, often flew in roles that were very dangerous.  Thirty-eight WASP's died in the line of duty but the military made their families pay to ship their coffins home.  It wasn't until the 1970's that these women were given any veterans benefits.

If you are ever in the Savannah or Hilton Head area, the museum is simple to get to off of I-95 and you should definitely go.  It's easy to spend several hours there, and there is a little cafeteria with pretty good food if you get hungry.

I wonder whether there's an aviation museum in Charleston?  If not, maybe I'll just have to check out Kitty Hawk.