Trail of Honor 2014

Last Saturday, I went by the Mississippi Trail of Honor exhibition that is set-up in our local Harley Davidson shop and in the woods behind it.

The shop display room is cleared and local veterans groups, veterans assistance organizations, and others set up display tables, exhibits, and assistance booths.

Various veterans groups - Marines, Vietnam Veterans, etc.

The 82nd Airborne Association

Tuskegee Airman manning the Buffalo Soldiers Association table

More Tuskegee airmen

WW2 Marine Navajo code talkers

Mississippi Military Museum, Camp Shelby

Outside in the woods behind the Harley shop, groups representing America's various wars, from the French and Indian to modern, set up living history demonstrations.

My friend John H. in his Continental officer's uniform, looking rather warm and uncomfortable.

A battery of Confederate artillery

And their opposite numbers, a Union Model 1841 12-lb howitzer, getting ready to fire.

Loading the piece.

And firing.  They double charged it and the noise was palpable to my body as well as my ears.

But the highlight of the exhibition honors our fallen veterans.

The Traveling Vietnam Veterans Wall, which is escorted throughout its time in the state by the American Legion Riders.  The honor guard this year was provided by the Mississippi State Guard, I think.

The Mississippi Faces of the Fallen Wall (under the tent) honors those Mississippians who have died in our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

The US flags stretched along the trail in both directions.

All in all it is a grand way to honor and memorialize our American veterans (of whom I am one).  I was able to meet and thank a number of older veterans and renew a few acquaintances from previous years.

Mississippi Trail of Honor

Every Armed Forces Day weekend (3rd weekend in May), the local Harley Davidson Motorcycle dealer has been hosting a tribute to America's military with its "Trail of Honor."  And every year I say, "Self, we need to go to this!"  Well, finally my son and I stopped by on our way home from one of our wargaming group's games.  Since the locale of the trail is at the Interstate exit I normally take to go to my house, it is a wonder that it has taken me so long to stop by the trail.

The trail started in the Harley Davidson showroom with a large number of booths and in-door exhibits featuring participants as diverse as Indian code-talkers, Buffalo soldiers, Tuskegee airmen, veterans organizations from every service, and even a small display from my workplace (Miss. Dept. of Archives and History).  Once we finished walking around and looking at everything, we went outside and followed the trail through the warm, but shady piney woods behind the shop.  Starting with the French and Indian War and finishing up with the current war of terror, the living history displays chronicled every conflict in which America has been involved.  Of course being in Mississippi, the largest number of demonstrations were of the American Civil War with re-enactors portraying all aspects of Civil War military life from artillery positions through a field medical site to the cavalry picket line.  The Traveling Vietnam Wall was also there and served to remind everyone who came through of the price we have paid for our liberty.

My camera batteries were very low so I only took three  pictures, even though I probably could have taken 300!

One of our own wargamers, John H. from Vicksburg, dressed as an American Revolutionary War soldier.

A "slick boat" from the Navy's Special Boat Team 22, which is based at the Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi.  This boat was one of the ones actually used in the movie Act of Valor which I saw.

A trailer mounted model of the Navy's newest nuclear attack boat - the USS Mississippi.  She will be commissioned on June 2, 2012 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Pascagoula.  She is the fifth ship named Mississippi and the first submarine to carry our state's name.

I hope that you enjoyed this very brief tour of Mississippi's Trail of Honor and, if you live close enough, will consider stopping by next year for a visit.