Fort Carson, Colorado: The 4th Infantry Division Museum

After Nebraska we headed south to Fort Carson, Colorado. The Fire Team had only seen one Independence Day fireworks display in their lives, so we wanted to make sure that they got a good one this year. Of course, it's Colorado Springs, so we spent an hour huddled under a pavilion with 50 other people waiting for a torrential rainstorm to pass, but once it did the weather was awesome and the fireworks were great. 

We were stationed at Fort Carson from February 2009 to January 2011, so we spent a lot of our time in the Springs catching up with friends from several different eras of our Army life, as well as some family. But, we also carved out some time to see and do some cool stuff. Of course, one of the things at the top of our list was the Fourth Infantry Museum. 

John has some history with 4th ID. He was in 1/22 from 2002-2004 when they were still at Fort Hood, Texas and he deployed with them during the initial invasion of Iraq. Fast forward a lengthy recruiting assignment and John and the 4th ID both moved to Fort Carson, where John went to Afghanistan with 2/12. We were only at Carson for 22 months (we don't like to stay in any one place for very long!), but I would be remiss if I did not mention that our time in Colorado was well spent, forging relationships with some of the most precious people we know (including the amazing moms who encouraged us to homeschool, who we can never repay for their inspiration and support!). 

All that to say, how could we pass up the 4th ID Museum? We couldn't, so here it is...

He was particularly fond of this head gear.

The museum had a 'please touch' table with different head gear and military equipment on it. One of the pieces was an L-angle flashlight. I'm officially old. 

The personal items are the most interesting to me in a military museum. I loved these old cards they had on display.

WWII map

Vietnam era momentos

We spent most of our time in the Iraq section of the museum and John answered lots of kid questions about the war, Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi people. 

John and I took a few quiet minutes together to remember that time in our life and our marriage and to thank the Lord that He had brought us so far. 

We had been married just over a year that spring. John bought me tickets to a concert for my birthday that year, but on the day that it was scheduled there was a freak ice storm in Texas and the concert was cancelled. They rescheduled it for a Friday a few months later. I was working at a bank investigating fraudulent credit card purchases at the time. My phone rang as soon as I got to my desk that morning. It was John.

"Hey, we got the call, I'm leaving for Iraq"

"When?"

"Tonight"

Needless to say, I gave away those concert tickets and took the rest of the day off to spend with my husband (and to this day I have not seen Kenny Chesney!).

I remember that day as clearly as if it had been last week. It's the day I started the tradition of dropping John off as if it were just another duty day, kissing him goodbye at the car, instead of dragging out the last few hours in the gym. It's the day I first felt a whole new kind of fear -- the kind that settles in to the corners of your mind and the pit of our stomach and the deepest crevices of your heart and doesn't leave until you have your arms around his neck again. It was the first day of the 365 that would teach us so much about ourselves, and our marriage, and shape our future in ways that I could not even comprehend that night as I sat, blubbering, in my 1985 Bronco watching my soldier husband smile and wave and walk into the gym, for what I anticipated might be the very last time. 

But, enough about that...

Back to the museum.

The 4th ID gets the credit for catching Saddam, and as such, they have a cool display about his capture.

I still have this exact newspaper in storage! 

I was hoping to see this famous statue, which was sculpted by an Iraqi artist from a melted statue of Hussein, but it's still at Fort Hood.

The museum is small, but contains some really interesting pieces, and if you have any history with the 4th ID, you can't miss it. If you don't have a history with 4th ID, it's still really cool, and it's free, and it's located outside the main gate of Fort Carson, so no ID card or pass is needed, so you can't miss it either!
And also, every blog post reminds me that I clearly have a habit of looking at cool stuff at museums, but not taking pictures, so you'll have to trust me on this one (again!) and I promise to work on it in the future! 

Outside the building there are several vehicle static displays, which are always G's favorite. He loves guessing what era a vehicle came from and what it was used for. At eight, he usually ends up schooling me in this area, which I think makes him enjoy it even more. 

With the Iron Horse.

The Rocky Mountain view from the museum parking lot. Fort Carson definitely has the best view of any stateside duty stations. 

John talked a lot about paint colors and camouflage techniques while I just trailed behind taking pictures. 

A statue of Kit Carson, after whom the installation is named.

And that's where the fun part of our visit ended. 

On the grounds is also the Mountain Post Global War on Terrorism Fallen Soldier Memorial. On there, we recognized more names than we were comfortable with, mostly from John's 2009-2010 Afghanistan deployment. We took some time to point them out to our fire team, and share some personal stories about memories forged with some of the patriots who gave the last full measure of devotion.

In particular, we talked about this guy...

Sergeant Sean M. Durkin, who died April 9, 2010 after being hit with an IED. Our own Sayer Sean is named for him and we miss him everyday, every time we say their name out loud.

It was a solemn, but necessary, visit. It is our most sincere desire that the sacrifice made by those listed on these slabs is never in vain, and so we teach our children that they should do all they can to ensure that doesn't happen. But, as we walked away from the memorial that day I realized how hard it is to come up with words that really capture the spirit of the names carved into this, and numerous other, memorials. Really, it is difficult to come up with words that capture the spirit of the War Generation, the faces that I scroll through on FB, or the one I wake up with every morning. Their spirit that says, indelibly, "I'll fight for the things I hold most dear. I'll die so that my brother may live. For those I love, I will sacrifice." So, all I could do that day was thank God for the sacrifices represented on that memorial, and for every person I know who embodies that spirit still.