Veteran's Day Field Trip

On Friday, November 13 (Yes, Friday the Thirteenth! I was scared too!), our school took an all day field trip in honor of all of the Veterans that have served in the United States military. Much to my surprise, this was a very interesting and educational trip. We went to a war museum, an Airforce base, Camp Butler cemetery, Oak Ridge Memorial, and other such locations. I found the Camp Lincoln War Museum to be the most interesting of all of the places that we visited. It was the first location that my group went to, and it really helped to catch my attention for the rest of the day. The museum was chock full of war artifacts such as weapons and uniforms spanning all the way from the Civil war until modern times. It was interesting to see the progression in technology from then to now. They also had interesting things such as a target that President Lincoln test-fired a gun at and the captured wooden leg of Santa Anna.

The Air National Guard was very interesting as well. At this location we looked at an F-16 fighter jet undergoing maintenance. This peaked my interest in Engineering. The aircraft was very complex in its inner-workings. We also saw a group of airforce members grilling steaks. It was good to find out that military-folk enjoy good food just like me. It was good to know that they were humans, I guess.

At Camp Butler, we placed flowers on the graves of veterans from many wars throughout history. One girl, I don't know her name, had a very emotional response upon seeing the graves of many of her veteran family members. This response was very touching to me. My great-uncle just passed away this summer. He was a veteran of World War II and was awarded a purple heart after being shot in the leg. I know that I miss him a lot, so this girl's situation must have been very sad seeing as many of her family members were veterans.