Jacksonville Museum of Military History

Vince Maes was the first person to welcome me to the reunion. He is also one of the head guys in charge of the Jacksonville Museum of Military History. Jacksonville is a tiny town next to Little Rock AFB. At least it used to be tiny, now it is a pretty good sized place. You can’t help but be struck by all of the Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and so on restaurants in the place. Kind of tells you where we have fought our wars.


The museum seems small until you walk into it. It’s easy to get lost at first, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s all military and has a lot of stuff you need to know about because you already knew about most of it, but had forgotten, and there are answers to questions you had long ago


Then you run into yourself! Well, it really isn’t you but we all know the guy. He stands stiff and uncertain, looks a lot like a manikin. You recognize the outfit, the shoes, and the coveralls and the hat. He reminds us of something that happened a long time ago. And we forget that "he" really is a manikin, because we resemble manikins ourselves as we stand and stare at the exhibits.

If you have anything you have been hanging onto for all these years that is a part of Little Rock missiles, and also a part of “you”, then donate that part of “you” to this museum so when people come here from all around, for centuries to come, they will run into YOU! I donated a 1968 dash-one (in horrible shape), and an ancient log book for the year 1964, from 374-5. "What the hell is a 'log book'”? I can almost hear some smart young whippersnapper ask. Well, go to the museum and find out. You won't believe we ever did such a thing. Buried in its pages are stories of how hard we worked. Mainly to try to keep the place clean. Contact the museum at the numbers shown above.


You will be surprised at all the military history associated with this part of Arkansas. Apparently there was a huge munitions factory here that provided for the American military forces. Part of the museum honors the role played by women, especially during World War II as production workers.

The 308th Strategic Missile Wing is well represented here, and Vince and the guys did us and the wing proud.

Thank you, all of you people who work at the museum. You are doing a very important job.


After the museum, we ate lunch at Cody’s. This was the only place in Jacksonville that I felt hadn’t changed a bit, unless maybe it had regressed – back to the 1940’s or 50’s.

And then we drove across the road and onto Little Rock Air Force Base.