Omaha Military Musuem Daytrip

So on Saturday we took a day trip up to Omaha...for some...unfinished business. Well, not nearly as ominous as that sounds but we've been trying to visit a couple places on recently and timing didn't quite work out, so we drove up for the day just to hit a couple museums. First stop, Freedom Park in northeast Omaha.


It's basically a Navy museum. The, errr, flagship of the museum is the USS Hazard, an Admirable-class minesweeper that saw action in the Pacific theatre, supporting landings in Okinawa and scratching two Japanese planes. Largest vessel to make it this far up the Missouri River under her own power, I gather.


They also have the Bowfin, a small training/target sub from around the same era.


Various fixed and rotary USN aircraft were perched about the park.


So, after walking about a bit and ascertaining that no, a restroom was not to be found, we boarded the Bowfin.


Nice older gentleman onboard gave us an informal tour...former submariner, and the volunteers here really do a good job. This was the captain's rack...rank has its priviledges? Love the wood panelling everywhere on board.


The conn. Again, love the wood panelling. If I could I'd just move in and live here.


Back out and wandering about the various gun emplacements. A 5" gun and various AA guns including these:


Then onto the Hazard. The ship was almost entirely open, not a lot blocked off. Racks stacked 3 up (sometimes 4)...


The officer's wardroom...certainly a bit nicer but still appropriately spartan.


I hunted for a Jane's Fighting Ships but didn't find one, but some very interesting stuff.


20mm AA mounts with the painted markings of the two downed Japanese planes.


From the bridge, captain's quarters may have had the other end of this copper voice pipe...there was a sound-powered telephone installed there, perhaps this is for redundancy.


View of the city off of starboard:


The river floods here occasionally...not too far away.


Lastly, prices posted at the Ship's Store.


Weather was great, nice and cool, so a perfect time to visit. We headed back into the car, got some food at a local Subway, and headed down towards Ashland to visit the Strategic Air Command Museum.


The Atlas is ominous, the first US ICBM.


Pete built a model SR-71 so it was fun for him to see it again, and repeatedly tell all of us that he built a model of that.


Main hangar:


The B-36 is almost absurdly large, you keep thinking, well, surely this must be another plane by now...but no, it just goes on in every direction.


(R?)B-45 Tornado


The "business end" of an Atlas ICBM.


The Red Phone from Offut AFB in the Gen Curtis LeMay exhibit. It is placed in a case to prevent people like me from picking it and saying "now then Dmitri...we've always talked about something going wrong with the bomb...the bomb, Dmitri...the hydrogen bomb..."


B-58 Hustler, which I gather, really hustled. First Mach 2 strategic bomber as I recall.


B-17 Flying Fortress, how my grandpa saw Europe...


It's a nice museum.


While he's still small enough to play around on these things!


There was a science of flight section for kids to play around in. This was a sort of flight simulator combined with a wind tunnel.


This, he advised me, was a plane's "torpedo, or bomb".


Thence to the gift shop where we encountered the Salvador Dali Armoured Division.


But we had to head out to get back home to let the dog out, so off we went...


The B1A used to be inside but now sits outside.


Fun day overall. We'll probably be back to the Freedom Park to explore those ships a bit more at some point, if we have a good reason to drive up again.