Wright-Patterson AFB…wow what a beautiful and enormous base! They have every amenity imaginable: golf course, flying club, tennis club (indoor courts!), a USO club, etc, etc. If I were the type of person to use facilities like these, I’d be tempted to pack up and move!
We stayed at the FamCamp, which is what the military calls on-base RV parks. The Wright-Pat FamCamp is on the shore of the lake. That’s right, the base has its own lake.
In addition to the huge variety of units on the base (Air Force Materiel Command, National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force Institute of Technology, etc), the base hosts the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
The museum is world-class, although with a very heavy emphasis on airplanes. However, they *do* have some very interesting space exhibits, including KH-7 and KH-9 surveillance satellites. When I was in the space business in the 1980s, these were some of the most highly classified items in existence. Ha, now they’re in a museum. These are the satellites that took still photos from 80-100 miles up and ejected the film canisters so they would parachute down over the Pacific. Specially equipped C-130s would catch them mid-air and return them to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, where the film canisters were flown immediately to Kodak for processing.
And, of course, airplanes! Many of the most iconic and famous planes in aviation history are in the Museum’s 4 gigantic hangars.
Outside, the Museum has a Memorial Garden, with many unique and imaginative displays.
And this is the part of the journey leading to Dayton.
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